Rise of the Valeyard
by Rise of the Valeyard
Summary: The Twelfth Doctor is given a cryptic message by a Cyberman as he regenerates into a younger, stronger, and angrier Time Lord. With the help of a new companion, an old flame, and a family member long thought dead, will the Doctor finally understand the origin of one of his more mysterious foes? Or will the past simply repeat itself? Rated T for Violence, Language, and Innuendo
1. Chapter 1

_**A/N: Hello FanFiction, well I'm gonna be straight up honest, this is probably the last thing I thought I would ever find myself doing with my spare time. But what the hell, I came up with a surprisingly cool idea of how to handle the origin of one of my personal favorite Doctor Who villains. Because hey, who truly is the Doctor's worst enemy other than himself? I also kinda hope to make this into a screenplay for a fan film, but I am admitting right now I am terrible at dialogue so I would need major help with that stuff first. Also find myself working on a soundtrack for said fan film, and that's coming along rather nicely. **_

_**Anyway, without further adieu, here's the first draft of my story Doctor Who: Rise of the Valeyard**_

**_P.S. Yes I'm basing the appearance and personality 13th Doctor off of yours truly. Despite the fact that I'm an American, I have been told I could make quite a unique American Doctor. Probably will post a picture of some kind soon. Unless somebody wants to do a poster for me, that would be sweet._**

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><p>At least he didn't die alone.<p>

He always hated when that happened. It made him wonder if that particular regeneration that he lived was even worth it if he didn't have anyone to share the end of it with.

It happened in the middle of his latest adventure, a little pit stop if you will, on the planet San Helios while it still held civilization. He had simply meant to pick up a spark plug replacement for the Anti-Grav motorcycle in the TARDIS when they showed up.

It had to be Cybermen.

The very thing that killed his first incarnation, and had the chance to kill nearly every single incarnation following.

The Twelfth Doctor was not planning to die at the hands of a God-forsaken Cyberman.

The capital city of San Helios was a fairly large city, comparable in size to that of Los Angeles, if he were to make a comparison to Earth, his adopted second home. There was a population of roughly 12 million residents of the capital city, ranging from all types of species. Enough variety that a small group of Cybermen could go unnoticed.

One of the Cybermen had marched onto a street away from a roughly 20-story high, hexagonal building, holding a strange looking device in its hands. The Doctor, noticing it from inside a repair shop half a block away, whipped out his sonic screwdriver and bolted towards the Cyberman to no avail. The little black rectangle was definitely a trigger device of some kind, the Doctor had figured as much, and without hesitation the Cyberman pushed down on a big red button in the middle of the device.

The Doctor had to shield his eyes from the resulting implosion. A compression field encompassed around the building in a blue light, then crushed everything inside at a rate on par with the speed of sound. The Doctor stood completely flabbergasted, as he had not seen this kind of technology since the Time War. The Cyberman had already prepared for the Doctor's arrival, vanishing by the time the light had cleared. People who were around the area and had heard the implosion tried to rush toward the building only to find a solid block of metal 20x50x10 feet and a pool of blood cascading down the street.

In spite of all the chaos, The Doctor was not focused on the now crushed superstructure, but rather focusing on a distant figure. A lone Cyberman, which stood not 200 feet from the TARDIS. Slowly, he paced towards his beloved ship and her unexpected visitor.

"_Why haven't they tried anything yet?" _he mumbled to himself, rather thinking out loud at the moment. _"What are they waiting for?"_

As he closed the distance between himself, the Cyberman, and the TARDIS, the TARDIS's doors were pulled open as a young, handsome, yet rough-looking man sauntered out into the parking lot where they all planted themselves, complete with laser rifle in hand. The Doctor failed to notice the gun as he called to his arch enemy, "What in the hell are you trying to prove with this?"

"It was necessary" responded the Cyberman in its usual monotone.

"Oh really", asked the Doctor sarcastically, "and do tell me how murder is at all necessary?"

"It was necessary to ensure we gave you our message."

"And what message is that?", the Doctor questioned, now with some confusion on his face.

"You will become the ultimate weapon. The ones you love will find you again, and you will become unstoppable. This will result in your own destruction, we are here to ensure you start down this path."

"How?" asked a now internally frightened Doctor.

"With this", within seconds the Cyberman's gun popped out of its arm and took aim at the Doctor's left heart and fired.

The Doctor didn't so much feel the initial pain of being shot, rather he felt the dragged out pain of bleeding out as he lay on the ground. His companion had taken the liberty of removing the Cyberman's head with his laser rifle one exact second after the shot had been fired, then rushed to the Doctor's aide. Throwing his left arm around him, he half walked-half dragged the dying Time Lord back to the little blue box.

"You better hold on til we get to the med bay, mate" he spoke quietly in a slight Scottish accent much like the Doctor's own, "I ain't letting you die yet."

"It's too late Benjamin" the Doctor was barely able to rasp out as he noticed the golden energy starting to overtake him. "You better let me just lean on the console and let me do this the best way I know how."

"But you're gonna die Doctor" Benjamin shouted, panic present in his voice.

"I have died 13 times now, technically speaking. I think by now I have ways of getting around it. Time Lords have a way to cheat death, but it means I'm gonna change, look different, act different, but it's still me inside. Do you understand that?"

Benjamin nodded hastily with tear ducts building up, and the Doctor put in coordinates for the Time Vortex, pulling the lever for dematerialization. As he felt the ship take off, the Doctor started to look around the console room of his beloved ship, in the roughly 100 years he had been alive in this form, he had learned to not mind the new, darker look to his ship to match his new (at the time), darker personality. But through a patient relationship with Clara and Danny, including an incident where he met this future self he would become, he learned what it took to lighten up and not be so damn frustrated all the time.

He chuckled quietly to himself as he thought to himself, he hadn't needed that sort of therapy since the end of the Time War. He found it so ironic that this would probably his least emotional, painful, or even significant death. He didn't die in some great battle, he didn't die sacrificing himself for a companion or a friend. Instead he died because the Cybermen wanted to make sure he'd regenerate, into what though was what had him worried.

As the light threatened to finally finish off this form, he looked at his companion one last time and said with a wink "Hopefully, this one sticks around for a while."

With that the explosion finally came as he crumpled onto his knees, screaming in agony for nearly a minute. The pain of every single cell replacing and his genetic code rewriting itself was anything but a laughing matter for the Doctor. Yet he found himself in the middle of a snigger as he heard a voice inside his head whisper "One More..."

While the re-writing process continued, images began to pop into his head. Some from his past, some from the present, some potentially from the future, he wasn't sure. But one by one he could recognize some of the images, one being Captain Jack, his friend he'd abandoned, another being his Tenth self (wearing the blue suit for some reason as opposed to the usual brown he wore), his progenated daughter Jenny (though with a different hair color than he remembered her with), and finally a face he hoped he would never see again tied together with a flower in the background. Although for him, how she tied into anything related to horrible part of his past was completely beyond him. He hadn't even seen that horrid man since his Sixth life, when he tried to kill the Doctor in the Matrix. _What was the connection to everybody else?_ he thought.

The screaming resumed but this time he could start hearing the difference in how his voice sounded as the process finally came to an end. After a solid minute of laying on the ground he opened his eyes, looked up at Ben, stood upright, and smiled without showing teeth.

"Hel-lo" the new Doctor announced and froze, noticing his new voice and accent. _I'm a bloody American now,_ he thought to himself as he started pacing the console room, _well, this is definitely the greatest practical joke the universe has pulled on me thus far_. He would look up from the ground to eye Benjamin for a millisecond or two.

"Doctor?" Benjamin, who had been staring at this new, strange man throughout the whole process, and had actually been paying attention when his Doctor had mentioned "change". He certainly looked different from his Doctor, yet this one was acting just like the last one. All happy and joyful one moment, then either dark and brooding or serious and upset the next. He knew which side it was when the Time Lord flashed his grin again.

"You're expecting someone else?" he recalled from the time his fifth form regenerated and nearly strangled Peri, not that he completely intended to. Not that he was intending on strangling Benjamin either, but you never knew what would happen within the first few minutes of regeneration.

Benjamin had to sit down in his chair to calm his nerves, his face still showing signs of pure shock. His friend, his best mate, had just gone and changed his face right in front of him. He had never once imagined something along these lines happening, even though he heard rumors that Gallifreyans were able to rewrite their DNA when injured or dying.

"Do you want me to try and explain this?" he said as he sat next to him, trying to lighten the mood.

"Get the hell away from me!" Benjamin jumped and looked at him with a mix of horror and surprise, "How did you pull that off? Hmm. One second you're acting all 'I'm dying and you can't stop me' and I'm supposed to just believe you're just hunky dory now? Oh no, it's not that simple. How many other times have you had to explain yourself suddenly to other people?"

Now it was the Doctor who looked almost ashamed with surprise.

"Look, I know this isn't necessarily the way you wanted things to go down, but for me it's either I do this to stay alive or else I really would have died 13 different times already."

Benjamin, now slightly more cool from getting his mini-tangent out, still looked peeved as he consciously took control of his breathing pattern, keeping it slow so he would level his mood out.

"Prove to me you're him."

"What?" asked the Doctor.

"Prove to me you're him" he repeated, "tell me something that only the Doctor would know."

"Well", the Gallifreyan responded drawing it out like his Tenth self, "First things first: I rescued you from a crash landing when you were being chased by Daleks in the Alpha Centauri system mid-31st century. You have 3 brothers, all younger, named Peter, Paul, and David. You don't tend to stick around in relationships, as they seem to bore you for the most part. We have traveled together for 5 months now, and you are the only person I have let call me their 'bro' when we're at a bar, and I have to get you out from drinking too much. In spite of the fact that sometimes you go completely against my moral standards, I can respect that you are willing to stick to your beliefs while proving that I'm still not wrong in mine. Just please, if you're gonna stay on the ship, please no more bringing strange women on board. Seriously, that shit gets really annoying sometimes." The Doctor opened his eyes wide and covered his mouth after he let that cuss word slip.

If he wasn't still feeling just above being on edge, Benjamin would probably have snorted and chuckled at the Time Lord's mishap. However, he simply looked at him with a slight amount of surprise, given that he had never heard the Doctor curse quite to that level yet.

"Huh, apparently this me is gonna be quite colorful with his choice of words. Looking forward to how that's gonna get me in trouble" the Doctor quietly mumbled to himself.

"This you?" Benjamin asked, rather frustrated in his tone.

"Okay Benjamin, seriously. Don't give me that drama that I've had to deal so many times with. Granted yes, I understand it's confusing. Now if you're willing to listen to me for just a few minutes, I'll explain everything, I promise."

As the Doctor and his companion stared each other down, Benjamin still looking angry and the Doctor looking like he might almost snap in any which way, Ben quietly backed off and whispered "Go on."

"Thank you. So little known fact about Time Lords: we're given 13 total regenerations, which basically means as that particular body begins to die, all the cells in said body begin the process of re-writing themselves and our genetic code becomes completely re-written, so we more or less become new people but with the memories and experience of our past lives. Now because of an incident on Trenzalore, I have a brand new set of regenerations, so I'm technically on my 15th body, but I'm the 13th Doctor."

"How does that work?" Benjamin stared confused at the last statement, "I thought the Doctor was the name you always had."

"It is" the Doctor nodded as he explained further, "however, when I was the Warrior who fought in the Time War, I believed that particular incarnation lost the right to be the Doctor. The other time was an aborted regeneration I did when I was Sandshoes by healing myself then siphoning the energy into a hand I lost within the first 15 hours of regeneration my old buddy Jack Harkness was holding onto. I got shot by a Dalek rather out of the blue. Not how I wanted a particular reunion to go down." Feeling quite nostalgic, the Doctor silently chuckled to himself and smiled. "Still, another friend of mine touched that hand and out of it came an instantaneous biological Meta-Crisis. Would've been nice to have him around for future events, but he decided to commit mass genocide against the Daleks. Not gonna lie, when I was Sandshoes, my head was crammed so far up my ass I could practically taste the bullshit I had fed into my own head about how because he only had one life I needed to banish him to live out his punishment."

"One life?"

"Yes, because the friend that touched the hand was only human so when she touched it, the DNA combined to make it a two-way Meta-Crisis, giving him my looks and knowledge with bits of her personality and genetic makeup. I won't bore you with the rest of the details.  
>So in conclusion, the thing with regeneration is I'm the same exact man, just with a new face, that's all. Does that mean my personality is always likeable? Depends on who you ask. Have I finally made some sense?" His eyes pleaded to Benjamin for understanding.<p>

"Yes, I get it Doctor but..." he casually walked closer to the Time Lord to get a better look at his new face and as he stood less than an arm's length away, he clenched his fist, closed his eyes, and made a full swing at the Doctor's left cheek.

Needless to say, gravity told the Doctor he had to fall over. He understood why Benjamin had hit him, but what was baffling him was why so damn hard?

"Okay, now I'm gonna say I'm sorry for hitting you. But why couldn't you have told me about this sooner?"

As the Doctor lay on the ground rubbing his very sore cheek, he simply gave Benjamin a blank stare, "To be fair, it's not like I ever plan on dying. Well, actually there was one time but let's not go there."

"Sandshoes?" Ben inquired.

The Time Lord simply gave him an upfront look that seemed to say 'Yeah, not too particularly proud of that moment'.

"And you always talk about your past selves like they're different people? If you're all the same man, then you carry the burdens of their mistakes as well."

The Doctor snorted at that last bit, "Don't remind me. I'd probably be happier if it weren't for some mistakes I made in that time period of my life."

Benjamin offered him a hand up, which the Doctor hesitantly grabbed onto. As he pulled him up, he sized him up one more time while the Doctor asked his seemingly obligatory 'How do I look?'

"Honestly you look very young. About my age, a little more toned muscle, not quite a six-pack though tough guy. But definitely look more like someone I'd go to the bar with, more of a bro with this body, I guess."

"Nice, I guess I'll have to keep that in mind should we find ourselves doing undercover work. But I suppose I should ask", he nearly froze as he stared Ben in the eye, "Do you want to go home?"

"I want to say yes Doctor, but I can't. I think you need me around and I'm gonna help you figure out what the hell that Cyberman meant by what he said." Benjamin surprisingly returned the Doctor's look with a half-smile.

_Ahh, yes..._ _that little bit of I don't even know what to call it..._

"Well, I guess the joke's on the Cybermen, because everyone I love is either dead or out of reach. But I suppose we should at least try to figure out where they went after they pulled that little stunt." he walked over to the console and started tweaking knobs and levers to get things going and ready to jump after the Cybermen. With one last look at Benjamin, he offered a closed fist in the air, "You ready to use that gun for real?"

As Benjamin returned the fist with his own, "Are you serious?"

"Of course I'm serious" replied the Time Lord. "Frankly I stopped caring about guns a long time ago." Ever since... No he'd dare not think about that now. The TARDIS however, seemed to have at least a different idea from his own because as soon as he pulled the lever, the TARDIS seemed to almost plummet into a free fall of sorts. This was made even worse by a burning sensation inside of the Doctor's mind and he screamed aloud in pain.

"Westy" he shouted, almost unnecessarily "I need you to pull the emergency brake. Do it now, my mind is barely able to keep up with the TARDIS' flight trajectory. I have no idea where we're going."

"Wait a minute Doctor" Ben responded hanging on for dear life, "I thought you said that an emergency pullout of the Vortex could result in"

"JUST DO IT!"

Without any further encouragement from his seemingly dying (again) companion and friend, Benjamin went to the emergency brake underneath the console and pulled the lever, causing a similar state of free fall, but this time shortened and more controlled as they landed with a thud. As he sat up panting, he looked over to the body of the new Doctor. His eyes were shut, his body still, but his breathing remained constant. _This could be worse_, he thought to himself. He decided to take advantage of this time to move the Doctor to the med bay and hook him up, because even if the TARDIS for some reason couldn't help him, his basic medic training he picked up over the years could come in handy should he have needed to give the Doctor any medical attention.

Once he got the Time Lord resting, he found his way to his room just two doors away from the med bay. He silently shed a tear for his fallen friend finally and prayed a quick prayer to the Goddess of his people. He simply lay in bed for hours, unsure of what to do. The Doctor was unresponsive, the TARDIS had more or less died, and he wasn't sure if he would ever find his way home again. As he turned onto his side, he finally felt sleep start to take him as he closed his eyes and found himself in a dream world, and in this dream was The Doctor?

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><p><em><strong>AN: So yeah, there's the Prologue to Rise of the Valeyard. Let me know how I did by reviewing please with constructive feedback. And I'm not kidding when I say I am looking for someone who's really good at making posters.  
>Next time on Rise of the Valeyard, how will Benjamin fix the TARDIS? Where did he and the Doctor land? Will the Cyberman's message ever be figured out? Find out in the next chapter...<strong>_


	2. Chapter 2

_**A/N: Hello FanFiction, thank you for making it this far with me through **__**Rise of the Valeyard**__**. Now then, let's see if we can't get this story moving a little bit, eh? Enjoy!**_

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><p>Benjamin Westoff wasn't exactly expecting to be able to sleep at all that night, yet after what seemed like hours of tossing and turning, he managed to close his eyes and drift easily into a state of slumber. As soon as he was actually under was when the real fun began. In the dream, he laid on the pavement back outside the massacre site at San Helios. Yet there was no one running, screaming, crying, or even there at all. Just him, the TARDIS, and his Doctor. The grumpy one. The Doctor was standing there in his usual attire, looking as though nothing had happened to him whatsoever. Silently, Ben was grateful that this was a dream as he didn't seem like he would be ready to face this new Doctor anytime soon, dream or reality.<p>

"Well, it would seem you had a rough day today, Westy" his old Doctor spoke with a tinge of a smirk. Benjamin gave him only one look back, a look of dread.

"I'm glad you didn't find it necessary to tell me about your little magic face trick. Honestly though Doctor, I was scared during that whole like minute and a half, what with the explosion and the weird laugh in the middle of your screaming, it was flat out terrifying." The Doctor simply smiled.

"Yes, I suppose seeing a regeneration without prior knowledge is a rather terrifying thing, and for that I apologize on his behalf. In case you're wondering why I feel so life-like in your dream, yet you have no control over me, I'm actually a voice interface for the TARDIS simply playing off your thoughts. I will use this dream to give you instructions for fixing the TARDIS, getting my body back in shape, and how to get back home after all is said and done. Do you understand that bit?" Ben nodded. "Good now listen well Westy, because everything is gonna depend on you as soon as you wake up..."

Three hours later, a surprisingly refreshed Benjamin just about jumped out of bed, dressed in a one-piece flight suit ready to go over the details of his instruction from last night's dream he had.

The first step was getting the Doctor's Sonic Screwdriver, which proved to be no problem picking up from a passed out Time Lord, though he did have to scavenge through his pockets for a solid two minutes before he felt the cylindrical tube-like object. The next step was making his way underneath the Time Rotor and disassembling the Central Computer of the TARDIS. Following the pulling of the positive and negative charged power couplings, he used setting 398B2 on the Sonic to initiate an electrical impulse that resulted in a energy feedback loop, thus slowly bringing emergency power online and allowing main power to begin its nearly three day long recharge cycle. He had no idea why the re-charge would take so long, since the Doctor had mentioned something about him being able to give up life energy to quicken the process, but this him was still too weak and new to be taking those kind of risks. It wouldn't have done them any favors anyway, as the TARDIS was stuck there, wherever there was, for at least another seventeen days, twenty three hours, and thirty-nine minutes. That was when they would finally be able to get back into the Time Vortex.

After repeating the electrical impulse to fifteen more sets of power couplings, he set about in his workspace to re-set the engines to Input Mode. This would release the energy that was in the reserve tanks and move them into main reservoir. They would need this for the necessary moves needed for moving around their destination should they have needed to as well as getting back into the Time Vortex when the time came.

The next step was making sure that the emergency power would last while main power charged. He carefully placed his hand on the switch for the Auxillary Power Control and turned it to the right, initiating a quick flicker of lights in the console room, followed by a sudden brightness of lights all over the room. Ben smiled to himself as the ship seemed to be thanking him for restoring the power.

"You mind giving me a voice interface, old girl?" he asked as the image of his Doctor faded into solidarity.

"Not too shabby Westy", the old Time Lord praised, "you've done quite well as far as getting the TARDIS's power back on, however if you don't mind re-hooking up the Central Computer, she's only running on approximately five percent power, and if it re-routes and distributes power through the Central Computer to the rest of the ship, it can complete the charge with a little less complication. Not to mention it'll take a hell of a lot less time. Feel free to change after you're done so when you leave, you don't look like you came out of a fight with Sontaran or something."

He slowly ducked back under the console and one by one, pulled apart his power coupling charges and quickly re-inserted them into the Central Computer, going in reverse order of which he pulled them apart, as to not kill power immediately. After pulling and re-inserting all 16 pairs of couplings, he hoisted himself back onto the main floor of the console room and hurried back to his room to clean up, with the interface smiling as he walked away.

He kept his shower brief, only to wash his hair and underarms. As he dried off, he couldn't help but notice the look of his hair that seemed like it almost had shortened past his comfort level. Not wanting to seem too vain, but he never knew when he would meet a nice young thing to take in his arms, he grabbed his favorite comb and quickly styled his hair just the way he liked it. After searching through his closet, he chose a gray three-piece suit and a brown pair of shoes. Initially thinking of a hat to go with his suit, he decided against it after checking himself out in the vanity.

Twenty minutes after his initial departure, Benjamin Westoff finally appeared in the console room, where the Doctor/TARDIS interface was patiently waiting.

"Now", he pointed to a drawer on the upper level of the walkway, "in there you'll find a credit card with your name on it, psychic paper should you need to get out of a tough situation, and ID cards for yourself and the new Doctor. He already met this body back when he was me, but he'll only remember this once he sees that ID card. There should also be a quick sum-up of a backstory as to who you are, should you come across mandatory social interaction. I hope you don't mind being a rockstar Benjamin."

Benjamin almost couldn't believe what he was seeing in front of him as he opened the drawer. Sure enough there was a Sainsbury's Bank card with his name (spelled correctly might he add), a wallet-like accessory with blank paper which he knew was psychic paper as he projected an image of a past conquest of his, there were also two identical cell phones. He had known cellular telephones were the main method of communication at this point in history, and the TARDIS must have simply tried to help him with blending in. Lastly, ID cards one with his face and name and some basic information saying he was a resident of Scotland. _At least we're stuck somewhere I've been before, even if it was the one time _he thought to himself. Then the surprise came in the form seeing the Doctor's ID card, it was a perfect likeness of this new body, complete with a new name: Dr. Chris Martell, Berklee professor. _Well, this is definitely gonna be funny trying to picture the Doctor as a music guy_.

Ben actually smiled at that, and let out what he guessed must have been the first legitimate chuckle since everything that happened yesterday. If anything he preferred to view this new little adventure as exactly that, complete with going undercover and a new identity he'd have to adapt to using for at least another two weeks. He chuckled a little to himself as he looked back at the first piece of plastic.

"How much is on the credit card?"

The interface looked at him nervously, assuming he was going to use the money for something raunchy. "Why do you ask?"

Benjamin simply shut his eyes as he let out more chuckling, feeling better and better about this new situation. "Not for anything like that mate. I just figure that if we're gonna be stuck where I think we are for as long as we are, I'd rather get a hotel penthouse that way I can get some time away from this and relax, but keep an eye on you at the same time. Also that way I can bring a girl around, and not have to worry about bothering you too much once you're finally awake."

The old Doctor simply nodded his head in understanding. "Fair enough Westy, well if you want to leave and explore, I'll simply stick around, charge up for a while and look after my new body."

"Are you sure Doctor?" The Doctor looked at him like he sort of wanted to get rid of Ben for at least a bit, so the TARDIS could make some adjustments to the console room as it saw the need to.

"Yes. Now be off with you, go find us somewhere a little more suitable to stay versus wherever we're parked, and just enjoy yourself for once. I mean it now get!"

Benjamin simply looked at him like he was crazy but he accepted that the TARDIS seemed to really want to move to somewhere else soon. "Alright mate, if you wanted me out of your hair while you take care of yourself, you could have asked. I'll find something soon, I hope." With those words, he walked out of the TARDIS, not sure what to exactly expect.

He turned back around quickly to lock the door with his TARDIS key, leaned against the door and exhaled fairly loudly. _Well, I just have to remember that this is simply another adventure. New Doctor, new place, I can make this work._ After mumbling his final thought, he turned around.

It was a park, that much he knew for certain. Just a simple little park, with a few benches and plenty of wide open space for families to bring their kids or their dogs. A few trees were placed selectively along a walking path that seemed to go for at least a quarter mile, by his guess. He took two steps on the ground and noticed it felt different. He knew this was Earth, it had to be. What struck a chord in the confusion of it was that the ground felt completely different, almost like it was made of different material. Not too necessarily different from the last time he was on Earth, yet enough to feel like there was a difference. He slowly maneuvered his way towards the path and chose to keep walking, wherever his feet would decide to take him.

As he finally made it towards the street, he took one look at the sky and noticed two strange things. One was there seemed to be these weird airships, but they seemed like everyday things in this century, whenever that was. He shrugged it off to simply notice that the sky almost looked it was a completely different color as opposed to the bright blue of the Earth he knew. _Where the bloody hell are we_, he quietly muttered.

His pacing slowed as he began taking note of his surroundings, and his eyes started to focus on a rather large building about two blocks away. As he walked closer, he was almost glad he had ditched the flight suit and grabbed one of his nicer suits as he strolled to the front door of the Corinthia Hotel. As the doorman greeted him, he nodded his head and found himself having to stop from the simply breathtaking lobby inside.

"Everything in order, sir?"

He turned around to see the doorman look at him as if he had grown a second head or something. He simply nodded with his mouth open and replied,

"Just taking in the view. Can't wait to see what my penthouse looks like." The doorman didn't change his expression, but his gaze upon the far younger man softened. Benjamin nodded at him again and slowly strutted up towards the front desk. The receptionist didn't look away from her computer as he cleared his throat.

"Welcome to the Corinthia Hotel. How may I help you?"

_Well, _Benjamin thought, _aren't you just cheery? I hope all British women aren't this monotone._ "I would like to make a reservation, have you got any penthouses available for the next two weeks?" The last three words certainly got her attention as the thirty something brunette simply looked him down. Where would a late twenty-something man have that kind of money?

"We have one penthouse available between now and the twenty-ninth. The Musician's Penthouse, for one thousand quid a night. However, if you are sharing the penthouse, we can bump it down to eight hundred quid a night."

"That would be lovely, I am sharing the penthouse. I am here ahead of my roommate to secure the reservation, that's all." He smiled with a somewhat fake grin, though if he were honest with himself he wouldn't mind giving this older lady a nice toss in his room if given the chance. The thought went away as he quickly noticed the ring on her finger. She gave him an equally fake smile, but couldn't resist looking at his eyes and hair.

"We will need a card on file to put the bill on." As she started her next sentence, he was already one step ahead of her in pulling out his wallet and presenting the credit card the TARDIS had given him, followed by his ID card. Another somewhat cheesy smile followed.

"Right. Here are your keys sir," she said handing him three sets of physical keys, not unlike his TARDIS key. She moved over three feet to swipe his card into the credit card reader, then grabbed the paper receipt coming out as well as a brochure of the penthouse and handed him everything with a pen. "and please print your name, initials, and your signature at the bottom." He complied without hesitation.

"Thank you sir, and enjoy your stay at the Corinthia." She waved over to a bellhop. A young African man in uniform quickly shuffled over to the desk.

"Do you have any bags on your person, sir?" he tried asking without sounding rude.

"No," Benjamin replied, "however my roommate has our bags. We'll be fine carrying them up ourselves when he gets here, thank you though."

He immediately made a near beeline for the main door as the doorman almost didn't open the door in time. As soon as he was outside, he broke into a light jog back to the TARDIS, he had to make sure nothing had happened in the however long he had been gone. As he was about to cross a street, he accidentally bumped into a young, mid-twenties girl with dark hair not too unlike the Doctor's new look. Her newspaper flew out of her hand and her almost empty cup of coffee fell onto the ground and surprisingly didn't open.

"Oh my God, I am so sorry", Ben scrambled to pick up her newspaper. The woman grabbed her coffee and tossed it into a nearby garbage can.

"It's quite alright, I should have paid a little better attention." She smiled at him, almost instantly finding an attraction to this random stranger she bumped into. "I love your accent by the way."

He quizzically looked at her, and chuckled. "Thank you. Must not know a lot of Scottish blokes then."

She giggled back at his little assumption, "Seems so. If ever you feel like buying me a fresh coffee, I certainly wouldn't mind that. I'm Leah." She extended her hand, which he quickly took and brought it up to his mouth for a very subtle kiss. She blushed, not expecting this still random stranger to be so friendly after barely a minute knowing each other.

"Name's Benjamin Westoff. And it is an absolute pleasure to make your acquaintance Leah. I wouldn't mind buying you that coffee after all. However" he panicked, suddenly remembering why he was in a hurry to begin with, "can I buy you that coffee tomorrow? I have a very important meeting to get back to. Pick a place and a time and I'll be there."

"Alright", Leah peeped, "meet me at the Black Lab at eight-o-clock."

"Great, I'll be there." He rushed across the street and damn near sprinted back to the TARDIS, while she just simply stared at him then slowly began walking further down the street, looking forward to getting to know this young man who, quite literally, came crashing into her life.

As Ben finally came upon the TARDIS, he yanked his key out of his coat pocket and quickly opened the doors up. The interface of his Doctor quickly turned on and prepared to give Ben further instruction.

"Easy there Westy, what's got you in such a hurry?"

"Oh nothing much Doctor," he leaned against the door smugly, then walked over to the console. "So how am I gonna get the TARDIS to our hotel room if you're still unconscious?"

"Ah," the interface noted, "see here is something I had meant to show you before my unfortunate demise. The TARDIS can run on a different user who is unused to the usual methods of TARDIS travel. Come, come." He advanced towards the side of the console with what looked like lines of jelly. "This is the Telepathic Induction Circuit, it will lead the TARDIS wherever your mind leads to." After thinking about the logistics of the room, he decided he wouldn't need the master bedroom, and the closet would be the perfect space to put the TARDIS. He stuck his hand in and projected the destination to the TARDIS. After hearing the grinding noise the TARDIS was known for, he felt the ship move for roughly fifteen seconds then a light thud. He dashed off to the door.

Surprisingly, he parked the TARDIS with its door facing the closet door. He stepped out into the master bedroom. The first thing he noticed was the balcony and the terrace and silently kicked himself for not choosing to take this room, but it's not like he couldn't just bring any guests up here while the Doctor still was out cold. He would remind himself of that if things went well with that new girl, Leah. Yet when he started staring at the bed, the weariness of the past five hours was starting to take a toll on him. Looking out he realized he landed about eight hours after he checked in, it was fairly dark out and sleep started to sound like a great idea. Realizing that the place had two floors to it, he found the lift to take him down to the main floor. After walking across the living room/galley, he found a second bedroom that looked just as nice as the Doctor's with an equally sized bed. Exhaling slowly, he quickly removed his suit and laid it flat on a dresser, slowly getting into the nice bed. As sleep started to take the mildly weary traveler, he thought back on the events of the past day. One thought that stayed in his subconscious slowly made itself known as he unknowingly whispered two words. "One More."

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><p><em><strong>AN: So ok, I decided that this chapter would be used to tell a little bit about our new companion, Benjamin. I don't have a particular inspiration for the character, he's simply my creation. And The Corinthia Hotel is a real hotel in London, for you non-Londonites reading this. Obviously I've taken a little liberty as to what's really in the hotel/penthouse since clearly I can't afford to stay even one night there, but hey, we can just say it's part of where our heroes are. The next chapter will get a little more out of him as well, and I promise the Doctor will finally wake up. Some discussions about recent events will happen, and how will the Doctor react when he figures out where they are? Find out in the next chapter of Rise of the Valeyard.**_

_**P.S. You should know where this is going, but I like to take my sweet time in making these things happen. Don't worry though, she'll be along soon enough...**_


	3. Chapter 3

_**A/N: And look at that, two chapters in two days! I am on a roll right now. Ok I should probably clarify something, these first few chapters I am reserving for character development, setting establishment, and introducing the plot. So the beginning might seem a bit stretched out and long, but I swear as soon as our heroes are back in the Time Vortex, the story will pick up and the plot will come back into play.**_

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><p>Three days had passed since Benjamin walked into the Corinthia Hotel. The Doctor was finally showing signs of waking up, but it still seemed like he would potentially be comatose after the events of the last few days. He woke up bright and early that morning, and opened the side door of his room to step on his balcony. If he had to admire one thing about London, it was that the sunrise here was magnificent.<p>

He had made it to the Black Lab after that first night, surprisingly he was five minutes early. Normally he would try to justify that to ensure his conquest, he would appease them in any way possible. This time, for some reason, he treated it like he actually wanted to go out with this girl. And why not, she seemed like she was surprisingly smart and not too clingy, but not unwilling to just hop into bed either. Her schedule didn't open to see him until that coming weekend, which only bothered him as it had been almost three weeks since he had seen any form of action. In his mind, that was far too long. He didn't necessarily view himself as an intentional playboy or pimp, but rather a guy who believed in the idea of loving people in their own different way. The way one conquest would mess with his hair, or the way another chose foreplay, or the way that Leah would simply smile at him and he would smile back. Tonight was finally the night he would see just how much of a bad girl she had teased him she was in the coffee house. It was now two days later, and four hours before their reservation on board a fancy zeppelin, as he learned the airships were called, which served as a fly-around-the-city-and-enjoy-a-nice-meal attraction.

_Ok something's not right here, _he almost sounded mad in his own head, _since when in the hell have I ever been nervous before a date?_ He sighed._ As long as the Doctor doesn't suddenly wake and ruin something, I think we'll be alright for the evening. And if he does wake up, it's not like we can't just back to her place._

After standing on the Doctor's terrace for what seemed like hours but was only about fifteen minutes, he walked back into the master bedroom and into the closet. With a snap of his fingers the TARDIS doors opened, and he paced past the console in search of the med bay. Upon entering the door, he gazed at the monitor with the Doctor's vitals and softened his expression. After the interface had explained the regeneration process a little better than either his Doctor or the new one had, complete with visual reference to all of his past lives, he finally got it in his head what exactly the Time Lord trick of cheating death was all about. This revelation unfortunately didn't help him come close to understanding the meaning of why his Doctor had to be shot by that Cyberman. That message was a little too cryptic for his personal liking, not to mention the whole 'You will become the ultimate weapon' bit. It seemed to confuse him the most. He knew the Doctor could throw a temper tantrum, that went without saying; however, Ben also knew that the Doctor wouldn't dare hurt another life form, in the physical sense anyway, psychologists be damned if he hadn't screwed someone up mentally speaking.

Benjamin's attitude started to change as he heard a groan and noticed the Doctor's heart rate begin to increase in speed. His content features gave way to a face of concern and worry. The Doctor moved his hand which had been by his side and started slowly moving up towards his forehead and slowly massaged his cranium. "Oh, what a headache..." he lazily drifted off for a second then opened his eyes, glanced over to his companion and inched himself to an upright position. "How do I look?"

"You look like shit, but at least you don't have a terrible haircut" Benjamin responded lightly. The Doctor snorted, unaware that Ben was actually referring to one of his past selves. "And how long have I been in here?"

"Three days now... You should probably clean up and change clothes. I can't imagine you want to keep running around looking like a magician!"

The Time Lord just smiled, glad to see his companion starting to get back to his old self, the one that chased girls constantly and annoyed him with bad jokes to no end. He hoisted himself from the bed and followed Benjamin out of the room, turning left to walk towards his old room. Seeing the TARDIS had moved his bedroom down an extended hall, he noticed several other rooms en route, all of them being past companions and one he didn't quite recognize. Finally reaching his door, he turned the knob and entered cautiously. The first thing he saw was that his room almost looked like his room back in his eleventh form with a touch of the look it had during his tenth life. He undressed and made his way to the shower, turning the water on and just letting it soak him. Naturally, he scrubbed and cleaned himself and found the experience almost symbolic. Like he was somehow, washing himself clean of some his past sins and guilt after a thousand years or so of self-inflicted misery had been miraculously let go. After drying himself and parting his hair in a way similar to that of what he called "80's Wall Street", he made his way to the wardrobe in a blue robe, not having a clue where he picked it up from.

Finding a new look wasn't gonna be easy, he knew that for certain. He didn't want the obviously odd choices of his past three regenerations, or his first nine for that matter. Something along his first post-Time War body was more of what he had in mind, even going so far as to break out the leather jacket and see if it would still fit. It did surprisingly, but it didn't seem like his style this time around, not without something different underneath at least. His eyes caught the attention of a long sleeve purple button-up and a black vest right next to each other. Losing the robe, he tried the shirt/vest combination and found it surprisingly pleasing in the vanity. He hurried on a pair of gray-black jeans, black dress shoes, and choosing a TARDIS blue suit jacket tied together with his old jacket, he stared every inch of his new body and look. He couldn't but admire this new, almost normal look to him. Ben was right, he did look young, especially without any obvious facial hair. He smiled and proceeded back to the console room where Ben had just walked back into the doors. His companion gave him a once over, then a couple more to really see the new look and nodded his head in approval.

"Very nice Doctor. If I didn't know better I'd say-" he was cut off by his cell phone ringing. Looking at who was calling and grinning, he quickly answered it.

"Hello, darling." _Wow, _the Doctor thought, _three days and he already has one hooked, lined, and sunk._

"I am doing rather well, though I must admit, I'm feeling almost sad. I haven't seen you yet today and this is our first time talking." A light pause as he seems to be listening intently giving an occasional "yes" or "mm-hmm", staring out into nothing then glancing back at the Time Lord and putting his pointer finger up to say 'One minute mate.' "Sure, I'll ask him." The Doctor's face tightened as he asked, "What is going on?"

"Oh we had a dinner reservation on this zeppelin thing, and I still have the reservation but the restaurant had to move our table to a table of four. She has a friend that can come out, because I may have mentioned that you would be able to fill in as the fourth man?"

"What?"

"Oh come on mate, it's not like you're taken and for all you know you might have some fun. It's better than you sitting stuck in the TARDIS for two weeks til we can jump back into the Time Vortex. Plus, I know this sounds extremely selfish but you sort of owe me for what happened four days ago! So please, for me, do this! And it will be fun, we'll be fine. Some dinner, some dancing, a couple of nice girls, should be a blast."

The Doctor feigned looking stressed, but realized this new body could use a bit of a break from all of the typical running and saving planets. "Fine. If you twisted my arm anymore, it would fall right off."

"Oi, easy on the cheek mister." They both chuckled. Realizing he was still mid-conversation, he put the phone back to his ear. "Yes, he would love to join us. Alright, see you in an hour." He hung up rather quickly with a large grin on his face.

The Doctor pulled the monitor of the Central Computer to himself, to get caught up on what happened to the TARDIS within the last couple days. "So it seems you completely disassembled the Central Computer, got power restored, and we're pretty much set to go, only we can't. Well that doesn't make one lick of sense." His eyes opened wide at a previous thought. "Westy, where did you say we landed?"

"I didn't" he replied looking worried, "all I know about this place is that it looks like Earth, more like London to be precise. We're currently in the closet of a penthouse. But there seem to be some weird things about it I can't quite explain. Like the ground feels like it's a different compound than I felt when we were on Earth last time. The sky seems like it's just a subtle enough different shade of blue." The Doctor held his hand out to cut him off. "And where is this dinner reservation I'm signed up for taking place?"

"On this zeppelin-airship thingy. Why?"

The Doctor dashed for the doors of the TARDIS. Opening them quickly he stepped out into the master bedroom of the penthouse Ben had mentioned, then lingered to the terrace where he saw a zeppelin flying overhead. Walking further out onto the terrace, he turned around time and again to see even more. As realization took hold of him, he closed his eyes as memories from twelve hundred years ago came flooding back into his consciousness. Cybermen, the factory, John Lumic, and that Rassilon-foresaken beach. Both times. Then a beautiful face with blonde hair and that cute tongue in teeth smile that she kept special just for him threatened a tear to drop down his face. Rassilon forbid the image burned into his mind of her kissing the Meta-Crisis, even though that was the plan all along. And how twelve hundred years later, he never forgave himself for never saying those three words that she wanted to hear, and he wanted to tell.

"Oh." He finally said after a minute of silence. "Shit." He put his hand through his hair and sauntered back to the TARDIS. He looked Ben straight in the eye, "What year is it?"

"Two thousand fourteen. Have you been here before Doctor?"

"Twice. Three times technically speaking. This is the home of the Cybermen that you know. This is a parallel universe, also known as Pete's World." He had to sit down on his bed to try and relax himself. Benjamin sat down next to him and placed a hand on his shoulder, because that's what bros do when one bro sees his bro under a lot of stress.

"Ok Doctor, I'm not gonna pry any form of information out of you. Not tonight because we have plans and I want you, scratch that, I need you to have a good time tonight. But as soon as I get back in the morning tomorrow, we're gonna have some breakfast, drink some tea, and we are going to talk. Is that alright with you?" The Doctor looked almost like he was going to hit Ben for daring to make such a bold statement, but he breathed out and nodded his head.

"Just as long as I don't have any awkward run-ins with anybody tonight, and I don't drink too much, that sounds like a plan. I'm actually looking forward to this, I really am, but this place. This place brings up some bad memories from several lifetimes ago." Benjamin beamed at his friend and lifted him to his feet.

"Then what are we waiting for mate? Come on, we have a cab that's taking us to the dinner reservation." He strolled to the penthouse lift as the Doctor followed suit.

After a fifteen minute and twenty five quid cab ride, they arrived at their destination. Benjamin had explained the situation with the ID cards and the background stories that the TARDIS had concocted while the Doctor was out. Upon seeing his identification, the Doctor remembered something from his past that he had knowingly stored away, lest he give himself too much future knowledge. There were a lot of questions that needed answering, but in realizing that those were events yet to happen in his lifetime, he had no choice but to simply let go of any immediate frustration and cross that bridge when they got there. Choosing not to dwell on his past which was also future he decided to try small talk with his companion.

"So Benjamin, who's the latest victim?"

"Her name is Leah. She works for some big fancy company here that sells health drinks or something like that. I gave it a try, it tastes no different than that soda beverage on Earth."

_Oh great, _he sarcastically thought as he stepped out of the cab, _even more connections. Can this night get any worse? _

The zeppelin valet was busy parking cars, while greeters welcomed dinner guests male and female alike as they took coats, hats, and whatever else people had for accessories. Benjamin hurried him on as a woman stood in the doorway to the entrance in a silky red dress with her hair long and flowing. _That must be his date, _the Doctor made a mental note to himself. _But where's her supposed friend?_

"Hello Leah" Benjamin strolled up to her as she kissed his cheek in greeting, "I thought we would be the only early ones. Anyways, this is my best mate Doctor Chris Martell." The Doctor extended his hand and Leah firmly shook it twice.

"It's nice to finally meet you Professor. Much like I have told Ben, I haven't met a lot of Americans-"

"Or Scots, for that matter" Ben cut in to the conversation while Leah gently slapped his arm.

"Nor have I met a lot of musicians, so it's nice to meet people who have appreciation for the arts" she finished.

"Well in all fairness my dear Leah, it is simply what I live for. Music, drama, painting, you name it, I have an appreciation for most art. Shall we enter?" He moved his hand to point toward the door.

"My friend will be right behind us, we can wait unless you need to pop to the loo or something. She's parking the car I think. Oh," she piped after finally spotting the driver of said parked car, "here she comes now."

The Doctor had his back turned as he heard a voice, "Sorry to keep you waiting sweetheart, but everybody and their mother must be trying to eat here tonight." He slowly turned around and followed that voice.

Just his luck, he noticed the blonde hair first, almost unchanged as he last saw it on that beach. Following down her face to catch her beautiful yet slightly aged eyes, eyes that made his hearts almost seize up yet feel more relaxed than he had felt in at least a hundred years. Next to her teeth, those amazingly white teeth that she would stick her tongue out in front when she smiled. And her face, when he viewed the whole package, complete with a shiny and elegantly long blue dress, she hadn't seemed to have aged a day since the second time on Bad Wolf Bay. Just his luck, his date for the evening was none other than Rose Tyler, the girl from the Powell Estate who stole his hearts and never returned them. Pushing aside any thoughts concerning the whereabouts of the Meta-Crisis, Jackie, Pete, her younger brother (he completely forgot his name), he could only focus on the beautiful face getting ever closer to their little group. _This is gonna be one hell of an interesting night_, he nearly panicked but released a breath after nearly a minute.

"Oh", he muttered to himself, "Shit."

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><p><strong><em>AN: Well well well, I did say she would come into the story soon. A little sooner than even I anticipated, but what the hell? I just wanted to get this part over with. How will Rose react when she finds out that the Doctor isn't only back in Pete's World but is also right in front of her the whole time? Find out the next chapter of Rise of the Valeyard._**

**_I don't need to ask, but I will anyway... Please review, that way I can deliver the best story I can!_**


	4. Chapter 4

_**A/N: Hello FanFiction! So here we are, again like I said intentionally kind of a slow start, but it will pick up after a couple more chapters. And I'll be honest, trying to write characters who are not my own is harder than it looks so bear with me if the characters ever seem OOC. By the way, I am gonna go back and re-tweak chapters one and two, I'm just trying to keep the story going and I still don't have a Beta Reader... or a poster... Anyways, here we go and let's see if we can get the awkwardness level OVER 9000!**_

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><p>He was dead, he had to be.<p>

The only possible explanation behind the fact that he was now starting his Thirteenth life in the middle of a human social interaction also known as a date, acting like he was some American college professor with a Doctorate, and the fact that his date was the one and only Rose Tyler in the parallel universe could only mean one thing.

He had died, and this was some form of afterlife. Though given the last time he dealt with an afterlife situation he sure wished to hell that wasn't the case. Given the choice, he'd rather not have his body turned into the very thing that had just killed his last life.

He needed a quick reality check so he bit his tongue, quite literally but not too hard as to prevent speech, and after a brief response to the pain he momentarily accepted that he was in fact still alive, in the parallel universe, on a blind date with the love of his Tenth life.

Seeing her again was completely surreal for the Time Lord. As memory after memory spread out into his mind, he could feel his hearts racing so fast that time itself felt still. In the matter of nanoseconds he remembered the first time Jackie had slapped him for bringing Rose home twelve months late, as opposed to the twelve hours that he originally planned on. He remembered the incident with the Dalek and how her compassion towards the creature had inevitably saved its life and his humanity. He remembered their little run-in with Captain Jack, and how Bad Wolf kept him immortal and led to his unfortunate regeneration after sacrificing himself to take the Time Vortex out of her head. (With a kiss of course, lame pickup line and all.) All coming back to seeing this random girl in the basement of Henrik's Department Store, grabbing her hand as she was about to be killed by Autons, and saying "Run". It was at this point he slowly began realizing, even accepting, that after twelve hundred years since that damned beach the second time around, not only did he still love her, but he contemplated the very idea of telling her.

Oh, but could he really reveal who he was? He wanted to more than anything, but he remembered how long it took her to accept his regeneration, even if that was the one she truly fell in love with. Not to mention she's probably still pissed for dumping her back here with a man who looked exactly like him at the time, but wasn't him. However, if anyone would be willing to forgive him for something that happened six years ago, in her time, it would his pink and yellow human. That was also what he wanted, since he was here. He wanted forgiveness for making the worst mistake of that life. A thought, that as his brain began to process, was something he was carrying over not to just Rose, but to so many other people.

He decided that it would be best to play it safe for tonight, and give her the best time that he possibly could and if he told her the truth, then it would only be if he finally admitted his feelings as well.

He strolled his way back to Benjamin and Leah as she crossed the street to the bottom steps of the loading platform and greeted the pair.

"Hello, you must be Benjamin" she said as she extended her hand, which he took and gave it a firm shake. "I'm Rose Tyler."

"Very nice to meet you Rose", he moved his hand towards the Doctor. "And this is my best mate-"

"Doctor Chris Martell", he cut in and gently brought his lips to the back of her hand then pulled back the second he made contact, almost catching her off guard. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Miss Tyler." The way he viewed it, by keeping things formal and saying her name as little as possible, it might make the night go a little smoother, for him at least.

"Likewise Doctor Martell", she nearly blushed, "but if you don't mind calling me Rose. I'm not sure if I want to sound like I'm a schoolteacher or something." He grinned and had a quick chuckle. _So much for the formalities._

"Ouch. Fair enough Rose, and all I ask in return is you call me Chris. Doctor Martell is a name I prefer to only use in the classroom, as I was a professor at Berklee. And this one should know by now that titles make my skin crawl, but I can't ever get him to stop making me feel old." He gave Benjamin a fairly accusing point as the two ladies giggled.

"Alright old timer" Ben retorted, "Let's bring these lovely ladies inside before you break your hip from standing for too long." Leah elbowed him in the rib as she took his arm and they proceeded towards the main doors. The Doctor held his arm out and Rose almost reluctantly grabbed on as they followed inside. The Maitre'D ushered them in quickly after seeing Rose and knowing who she was and found them a very isolated window-view table in the corner of the restaurant. She simply shrugged the extra luxury as "Perks of being an heiress I suppose" and the Doctor did everything he could to not burst out laughing, realizing that in ten years living as an heiress, she hadn't changed in the aspect of how she wanted to live in something other than whatever the hell she currently was.

As they prepared to sit, the Doctor made a move to pull the chair out for both Rose and Leah as Benjamin hopped into his seat next to Leah. The Doctor's face contorted in a way of nearly chastising his friend, and Ben quickly caught on as to what he was doing and finished the job he started as Leah gave him a quick peck on the cheek to thank him for his rather sudden politeness. Rose simply gave the Doctor a smile and a "Thank you" as she sat down next to the window. It wasn't **her** smile, but it would do for the time being. The Time Lord mock scowled his companion as he pulled up a menu for both himself and Rose.

"Come on Ben, I thought you had a little more manners than that. And you call me rude from time to time." Benjamin gave mock offense right back at the Doctor. He then sported a grin as he and Leah began looking at menus.

A rather pompous looking server approached their table, sporting a rather posh sounding accent, asking the table about drinks to start the night. The ladies agreed to split a bottle of sauvignon blanc, Benjamin asking for a glass of scotch whiskey, and the Doctor deciding, as a means for playful social interaction, on Irish whiskey. Leah started chuckling to herself when Ben, who was looking for a way to actually sound like he was from this century, decided to play a "cheap card" as he often called it in an argument.

"Oh blimey, here he goes on the Irish thing again." He gave a subtle wink to the Doctor when the girls looked at him to see his response.

"I have no idea what you're talking about, Ben" he replied as he sipped on some water.

"Oh, don't give me that crap mate." This surprisingly got another chuckle out of Leah. "I'm dead serious here, when we were in college at Berklee, he got so damn obsessed with the Irish culture, as you would expect moving to Boston from Chicago, that I had to hold an intervention in our dorm room after he got drunk on Irish Car Bombs with some friends of ours." Luckily for Benjamin, the Doctor was quick to play along and keep the fake banter going.

"This coming from the guy who shoved his Scottish heritage down my throat for the first three months?" He broke into false laughter, but he was really laughing at the absurdity of his current situation, still only half believing this was even taking place. "Besides, you never complained about my Irish coffee." Benjamin scoffed as Leah raised an eyebrow at him.

"Just be glad you're not really Irish or else I'd have to blame your rudeness on your Irish blood. And if you were ginger on top of all that, God knows I would've had a field day with the insults I would've thrown at you." Benjamin was honestly not aware of the more than obvious set up for the Doctor's response to that.

"Well when you put it that way, thank God I'm only rude and not ginger." Rose burst out laughing, and the Doctor thanked his old wit for thinking up that quick one. He hadn't quite realized how much he missed that laugh of hers.

The laughter died down as the waiter brought the drinks to the table and informed the group that ship was taking off in one minute. Benjamin asked the waiter if they could order as he knew he was ready, even if the rest of the table wasn't. The fairly surprised looking waiter pulled a tablet and stylus out as he made his way around asking everyone's order. Benjamin selecting roast duck, a lobster/pasta dish, lamb and chips for Rose, with the Doctor insisting "I'll have what she's having." This got a round of more laughs as they all selected the house Caesar salad as the starter dish. The waiter, unamused by the scene around him, pressed some buttons on the tablet and thanked them for selecting their choices. As he left the table, they could feel the zeppelin begin takeoff procedures. An hour and a half later, they would land again.

The Doctor slowly sipped on his whiskey as he decided to take the conversation in a direction that involved the full table. However, that job was done for him when Rose took charge in asking, "So tell us Chris, what do you have your Doctorate in?" The Doctor could almost sense that saying his fake name felt awkward for her, and almost more awkward for him. Damn the TARDIS for not letting him use John Smith, but he had to agree that using that name would have been a dead giveaway.

"Musical studies. Basically every aspect of the music industry, both artistically and scientifically speaking." Leah looked at him with utter confusion, "What kind of science can you apply to music?"

"That's actually a good question. Science itself isn't used to measure music nor is it used in the theory behind music, that's more based on mathematics. However, science is used to look at certain aspects of musicians or more of the sound qualities of music. Say for the purposes of studying artists themselves, you can use physiology to see what their body does as they're performing and figure out how their technique either improve or harm the body. On more of a mental scale, psychology to understand why some artists have a pre-concert ritual or superstition, will or will not perform in certain areas of the world, or have certain patterns in their lyrics et cetera et cetera. Meanwhile, sound itself is more of a physics-based science as all sound contains wavelengths measured in units called Hertz. And the pitch of a note or even the pitch of your speaking voice determines how quickly or slowly the wavelength moves along." He noticed that she looked interested, but almost completely blown away by his response. "Nod your head if you're having a hard time keeping up." She awkwardly waited two seconds then nodded her head. He smiled and glanced at his companion. "Aren't you glad you only studied your performance stuff, Ben?"

"Damn right, couldn't have been happier to leave that place after I got my Bachelor's." He nearly snorted as he gulped down on some of his scotch. Rose moved her chair back slightly as she left to make use of the loo, with Leah sneaking out to join her. It didn't look like either was rushing there, but the Doctor almost wished they were for as soon as they were out of the general area, he slammed the remainder of his whiskey and gave a fairly loud sigh. _This is gonna be tougher than I thought._

"You alright there, mate?"

"You know the feeling when you see an ex after a long time has passed, but you kinda wonder if they're interested in trying one more time?"

"No, not really, no. Remember I leave after a couple times in the sheets and never see them again, usually."

"Ah, well that's where I am mentally speaking right now."

"Hold on, hold on mate," he scooted over to Rose's seat quickly. "How do you know Rose Tyler, the Vitex Heiress?"

"It is a long story" he said knowing that was an understatement, "but the short of it is I met her back in my Ninth life, she stuck around for a chunk of my Tenth life, she fell in love with me, I more or less returned the feelings but never said anything, then she was ripped from my life and wound up here. I also set up this universe's Pete Tyler, whom she and I named this place after, with her mother from our universe after they lost their parallel opposites. So technically speaking, they were married to each other twice."

"Well, that's just weird. Hey, wait a second here mate? Did I just hear you right? You, Mister High and Mighty Time Lord, fell in love with a human and had your heart broken by one? This was during Sandshoes, wasn't it?"

The Doctor really didn't want to verbally respond to that last question, so he gave Benjamin a simple nod.

"And you're gonna tell her, aren't you mate? Obviously not here, your and Rose's business is your own, plus I don't want anything awkward getting in the way of me and Leah tonight. If it makes you feel better, we can take the end of the night back to her place."

"That would be appreciated. And I don't know, I almost feel like I should, but I also know that I hurt her badly in the past and she may not even believe me even if I tell her. I'm not exactly the only Doctor in this universe."

Benjamin had confusion written all over his face, but after five seconds to think it over, he realized what the Doctor meant. The realization made him open his eyes wide and even brought him to smack the Doctor straight on the sternum.

"You left her here with that meta-clone-cris-shit-thing you grew from your hand? What the bloody hell is wrong with you?"

"I thought..." he stopped himself short of a tear coming down, wiping his eye before anything else happened. "I thought that by leaving her here with him, she could stay with her family, look after him, and they could grow old together. Get married, have kids, get a mortgage, all that domestic shit and live the one adventure I could never have." As he saw two glasses coming his way, one with water and the other with more whiskey, he slammed the whiskey straight and shivered before asking for just water for the rest of the trip. "And clearly something happened where that's not quite the case, so I don't know what the hell she's gonna say if I tell her. I mean for God's sake, ever since that damned beach, I have been married twice, gone through so many other companions, gotten twelve hundred years older and I still love her." He stopped himself short as he chuckled to himself, and Ben placed a hand on his shoulder. "And you know, it's kinda funny. Back when I had first met her, I tried so hard to not fall for her by being little more than a cynical ass who would mope about the Time War and think nothing of it. She cut right through the crap, saw me for what I really was and healed me." He sipped on more water, not wanting to risk saying something stupid from intoxication.

Ben simply looked at his friend with sympathy. "You really love her, don't you?" The Doctor nodded his head and beamed.

"It's not like I haven't loved since, but I guess if given the choice, she stole my hearts fair and square."

"Alright Romeo, here she comes" he whispered somewhat sarcastically.

He peeked over his shoulder to see the two ladies returning as Benjamin moved back to his chair. Both men surprisingly took the extra polite route of pulling their respective date's chairs for them, then seating themselves down. Ben and Leah immediately took to their own private conversation, most likely something along the lines of what were their plans for after the ship would land. The pair sitting across from them looked at their friends, then each other and quietly chuckled. Rose took this as a sign to discuss with 'Doctor Martell' about the night so far.

"Dragged into coming along too, I see?" she asked.

"Yeah," he drew out, "but he knows I'm always there to be a friend, and they seem to be hitting it off. If you don't mind my asking, I can't help but be curious as to know how a celebrity manages to get around London without paparazzi bothering her left and right."

"Well Doctor Martell", he snorted at her formality, "let's just say I have ways of getting around without people even noticing me."

"Sure could use that back home."

He looked at her then noticed something in the view over her shoulder, and loudly whispered "Wow", which gained the attention of Ben and Leah as they followed his gaze. The London skyline at night could not have looked more breathtaking than it was right here, right now. Present company probably didn't hurt for helping making it feel more impressive than it actually was, but for just one second, he was able to focus on something other than the happy discomfort of the situation around and feel like his giddy old self. The inner child-like wonder of getting to see something he hadn't seen before completely overtook him as he grinned like a little boy who just saw all of his Christmas presents. Leah couldn't help but feel the need to ask the obvious, "Never seen this kind of view at night, have you?"

He shook his head, "Not London anyway. New York looks amazing at night, L.A., same thing, but this... Wow. This almost feels like coming home." He never broke his grin as they all saw the waiter returning with their starter salads. Before digging in, he looked sideways towards Rose, who seemed to be enjoying being around this new man she had met an hour ago and gave him **her **smile. _Maybe tonight won't be so bad after all._

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><p><strong><em>AN: Aww, just wait til the next chapter... I'm sure some of you wanted him to just say it and make an ass out of himself, but you would think after two thousand one hundred eighteen years of life (that's how old my Doctor is), the Doctor would have wised up by now. And for the record, I do not write smut nor will I ever. So sorry towards any of you who (for some reason) expecting something a little more spicy. If spicy is what you want, read this while eating a jalapeño pepper._**

**_Will the Doctor finally be able to confront his feelings towards Rose? After all this time, can she still honestly say that she loves him? Will we finally get back to the Cyberman's message? (Yes, I'm just trying to get the overly romantic crap out of the way first) Find out in the next chapter of Rise of the Valeyard._**


	5. Chapter 5

_**A/N: Ok, last chapter of pure fluff, I promise. But at least we can get the two lovebirds to finally reunite, right? **_

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><p>Ok, he could finally accept that he wasn't dead.<p>

As much as the new developments of the situation terrified him, albeit mostly the one with the blonde who had sat next to him for nearly two hours, he was also so excited about what else would happen tonight. What else would happen tonight? He had no clue, that's why it excited him.

Their dinner came in timely fashion as drinks were had, laughs were plenty, stories about "growing up in Chicago" were told, and the food was of course delicious. The Doctor was halfway through telling a story about a bicycle accident that nearly killed him when their waiter approached the table to say the ship was landing in five minutes. As he wrapped up the story, he reached into his coat pocket and found his credit card to pay for dinner, despite a brief argument from Benjamin saying it was his reservation so he could've certainly paid for it. The Doctor simply shrugged him off, thinking since Ben paid for the hotel he could at least feel like he had some financial responsibility.

Upon leaving the restaurant, the foursome had little difficulty locating Rose's car and deciding where to proceed to next. Ben and Leah were talking about going to this club right by their hotel, which had mildly peaked the interest of the Doctor and just decided to agree once Rose also said yes. The time was getting near nine-o-clock in the evening, not too early to start having Friday night fun but not late by any stretch of the imagination. The Doctor had offered to drive, as he had only his two drinks and that was nearly two hours ago for him, plus it would have taken a lot more than just the two to ensure proper intoxication. Superior Time Lord biology and all that. Rose surprisingly had no difficulty giving him her keys, even though she herself had not had too much either.

The trip back to the hotel was surprisingly quiet. Thank Rassilon that Ben and Leah weren't trying to go at it like a pair of rabbits yet, but he knew as soon as they all got into the club they were gonna miraculously "disappear". He gave the keys to the valet and told him to park in the penthouse lot if he could, should Rose decide to leave at the end of the night. This was one of the things that he still was having so many thoughts and second thoughts and thoughts within thoughts about it was nearly giving him a headache. In the end, he reminded himself of his original plan of only telling her if he decided to reveal who he really was this whole time to her.

The group finally started their three block walk towards the club. Ben and Leah were practically power walking ahead of the Doctor and Rose as they just strolled behind them, arm in arm with her leaning on his shoulder. He was doing everything he could to not let his hearts race as fast as they possibly could, as that would have been the dead giveaway and he didn't feel like ruining the moment he was having. In the past three hours, it was like he slowly getting to know her all over again. And this added a tiny amount of guilt for when he was gonna say it; after finally deciding that he would but it would be a matter of when. Their private moment was interrupted as a cell phone went off and Rose dug into her purse. After she issued him a quick "Sorry", he gave her a little privacy as he waved towards Ben and Leah to keep going.

He leaned against the side of a building as he waited around and kept stealing glances at Rose. At first, it was a just a response in stimuli to seeing her again for the first time in over a thousand years, the next few that followed were suspicions that maybe despite her dress and white light jacket, she was just feeling cold. He almost laughed as he stared at her to confirm it. Rose was finally finishing whatever important discussion she was having as she hung up her phone, shaking her head as they both started giggling and picked up the pace from where they fell behind. As they went back to their previous position, he noticed her shiver once as he tried graciously (tried being the definite word to use) removing his leather jacket and wrapping it around her without actually putting her arms in it. She simply accepted the gesture with a "Thank you" as they finally came into view of the club.

Even if he WAS a real music snob, the Doctor had a hard time accepting this was the music of this particular scene. Hardly the kind of place to be having the discussion with Rose he needed to have. They did walk to the back of the line and see how long it would take to get in. After two minutes of waiting and no one had moved yet, he could not have looked more bored as he said "I don't know about you, but we should find something else.." and trailed off.

Rose half-smiled at him, "No arguments from me. Why would they want to come here in the first place?"

"Oh that's easy to answer. With no actual building lighting, you can do a lot of more crazy stuff in these kind of places like do it in the bathroom or take God knows what kind of drug in the middle of the dance floor. Add on top of that the fake, overly processed 'music' as they call it and you find yourself with no voice from yelling over the music and a sudden penchant for thinking bass drops are cool." Rose almost called him out, but she held back and decided to let him continue his rant. "If there is one thing I'm glad I picked up from Berklee it's that I've had to do all that. Not that it should entitle me to be a prick but I get it and I know how to actually make this kind of music while still making it sound like music. These guys, not so much and I'm gonna shut up before I get myself in trouble, how about that?" She looked up at him with a look that said 'About damn time' and kissed him on the cheek.

"Come on, I think I saw a place actually in your hotel that looked a little more, shall I say, classy?" She gave a tad bit of a seductive edge to her walk as he quickly caught up muttering "Minx".

The Time Lord found himself almost having trouble keeping his breathing regular as he and Rose found their way back to the hotel. They entered through the lobby and continued down a brightly lit hallway until they came across an open set of doors revealing a nice two story venue. On the top level where they stood was a full access bar with tables carefully placed at various points throughout the upper level. Down the half-flight of stairs there were twenty tables and booths that made an L-Shape around the decently sized dance floor. Up on the stage was a jazz sextet, complete with piano, upright bass, drums, trumpet, saxophone, and a singer who had a guitar in a stand next to him. He heard Rose say something, but it was jumbled with him taking in the music and the atmosphere of venue. Snapping back, he asked "Sorry Rose, what?"

"You find us a table and I'll get drinks, yeah?" He took a second to process the words and gave a half-smile.

"Sure" he responded as he descended the stairs to find a booth still open and cleaned off. _Well isn't that lucky,_ he thought. The band was just holding a last note as the audience began their applause. The Doctor took advantage of the time given to him as he rushed up to the singer.

"Hey do you guys take requests?" The singer glazed over the Time Lord and nodded his head as he sipped on a flask.

"Sure kid, what song?"

"Moonlight Serenade, Glenn Miller" the Doctor responded. The bass player asked around if the rest of the group knew it, all of them surprisingly said yes. He looked back at the Doctor and said "We'll get to that one next." With that, the Doctor dashed back to his booth and the drummer counted off four beats as the next song began.

The drummer laid down a steady rhythm on the floor tom of his set in a shuffle pattern. _A nice fast song before a slow track, almost sounds like they planned that_, he chuckled to himself.

Rose finally found their booth with two shots, a glass of scotch for him, and a martini for herself on a small tray. Thinking she was going sit opposite him, he left his jacket on his side. Upon seeing she had other intentions, he tossed it over to the other side as they both picked up their shot glasses.

"What are we drinking to?"

He noticed Rose having slight difficulty making a choice so he quickly piped up, "To Ben and Leah, who are probably on their third go around in a bathroom stall." He chuckled as Rose quietly joined his laughter.

"Here, here." They clinked their glasses and slammed their shots having the same reaction, right down to the face contortion and bout of coughing. After their initial recovery, she scooted up against him as he moved to take her by the hand. She got out of the booth as they both meandered onto the dance floor right as the trumpet player was free jamming the song's end. The audience applauded, even whistling towards a couple of the musicians. The singer grabbed his guitar placing the strap around himself, waving a thank you to the audience as he put a grip on the microphone.

"Thank you, thank you very much. This next one is a request, and I'm dedicating it to all the hopeless romantics out there. Starting with the young man and the beautiful blonde right next to him. Hit it!"

Rose gasped when she heard the opening bars of her and her Doctor's song, as well as having to sit through the singer completely embarrass 'Doctor Martell' and noticed he only had a smirk on his face.

"You requested this song?" she asked grabbing his hand.

"I might have" he replied feeling pleased with himself as they stood with her hand on his hip and his around her waist. "It's a personal favorite, and it's worked for me before." He didn't allow her to respond as he spun her about, caught her then kept the moves going as they moved about like no one else was on the floor. It was like if they were well rehearsed, a little too well rehearsed for Rose's liking. The Doctor could notice this but there came a point when he just did not care. The universe owed him this, after taking away so many people and planets and species from him, after him suffering through the losses he's had to endure. He kept his step in perfect time while allowing her to struggle but only to bring her back in synchronization with him. The only thing that spooked him about this whole little dance was that he had only been alive for four days in this form and was not entirely sure if he could dance. He would have to have one hell of an alibi for after he told Rose the truth.

He couldn't help but sing along for the last two lines of the tune as he and dipped Rose over as the last note hit. As breathless as they both were, he just he held her there as they stared into each other. Before it got too uncomfortable, he pulled her into his embrace, though a little more quickly than intended and they fell over, laughing as soon as they both hit the ground. They picked each other up, left their drinks on their table and made their way back to his penthouse. A short walk and lift ride later, they finally arrived after what seemed like an eternity of silence that was only building up. He grabbed the key with no issue as he turned the lock to the open position, then held the door as she walked in.

She waited until the Doctor closed the door then grabbed him by his jacket and assaulted his lips with hers. Unlike most of the other times things along this line had happened, the Doctor did not try to get out of it. He did not flail about like a little girl. He did not protest. He did not even try to end it early. He kept it going as long as they both could. He had missed her lips, even if he was in different bodies, and now finally he was about to find out what Rose Tyler was like both on the outside and inside. All the times they cuddled and held each other before felt great, but at the moment his lust was overtaking him and he needed to give it to her good.

Suddenly a rush of guilt seemed to almost attack him as he broke the kiss leaving Rose wanting more. "Hold on" he held his pointer finger as he made his way to the penthouse lift. "Just gotta get something from upstairs, one second." He pushed the Upper Level button on the elevator, walked out to his room, running to the closet, snapping his fingers and shutting the doors of the TARDIS. He angrily marched up to the console.

"What the hell, old girl? This isn't one of Ben's conquests that I just kick out after they've had their fun. This is Rose we're talking about here." His response was a series of almost angry looking lights.

"I was gonna cut it off then I was gonna tell her, what's so wrong with that?" More angry lights.

"I..." he nearly growled from the level of sexual frustration he was feeling right now. Why would the TARDIS codpiece block him from their Bad Wolf? "I would have told her, definitely mid-coitus, probably post-coitus." Sparks began flying out of the console. "Ok ok ok ok fine, I get your point. Do you still have a bottle of that wine?"

The TARDIS reached out to him to check in the storage unit below the console. There he found three things he thought would be needed and one that he wasn't sure why it was there. He grabbed the bottle of Malus Lupus wine with one hand, put the fez on momentarily and held the two glasses with the other as he made his way towards the terrace. Placing the wine and glasses on the main table and hiding the fez away in case she didn't believe that it was him, he clapped his hands to activate the heated couch. After deciding to wait on popping open the bottle he made his way back to the lift and pressed the Main Level button where Rose was waiting for him. He held his hand out, "Come with me Miss Tyler."

"And where are we going Doctor Martell?" she teased when he slipped on the formalities.

"To the roof" he exclaimed as he pressed the button "for actually good drinks and a view that frankly can never be beat. Don't worry about needing my jacket again, the couches are heated." He stopped himself short of babbling as he kissed Rose's neck out of lust and passion winning him out for a second. The TARDIS gave him the mental version of a growl, and he mentally sent one back as the door opened. The pair opened the door to the terrace and both his and Rose's eyes widened at the view of the city in combination with the light playing off of the River Thames.

"It's gorgeous" she quickly got out. The Doctor's gaze moved from the view to staying solely focused on Rose.

"Yeah, it really is." She noticed him still watching her as they both smiled. They pecked lips quickly as he took her hand and brought her to the main sitting area of the terrace. He was going to go for the bottle to open it, but before he could reach it he was turned around as Rose started to give him another snog. He wasn't certainly complaining, but he knew that if he didn't tell her the truth before things got too far he might just screw up everything this night was meant for. He cut it off early as she almost had a look of disappointment in her face.

"I'm sorry, I really am." He ran his hand through his hair as he tried collecting his thoughts, hearts finally racing as fast as they could, not that he cared at the moment. "I need to say something and I just am having the hardest time saying it." He exhaled slowly. "I lied." She looked at him with cautious confusion. "About what?"

"A decent chunk of the night."

"Oh so this whole night completely pointless?"

"No, no, not at all. I mean I lied about why I requested Glenn Miller. I lied about how I ended up in London. Christ's sake Rose I even lied about who I am." Shame and remorse could not have been more clearly written on his face, and Rose could see it clear as day. She didn't want to believe what she saw though.

"No."

"Rose, let me finish" he cut in, almost rudely given the moment. As he continued to keep collecting his thoughts, he chuckled. "You're still as beautiful as the last time I saw you. Granted for me, that's been a long time." He knew he was stalling but he knew she would catch on when he finished explaining.

"When?" He knew he had to be careful about answering this, give an answer that not even the Meta-Crisis would have known about. He thought January First Two Thousand Five, but he had a feeling she might have told the Meta-Crisis about that even if he himself didn't live through that event.

"Let's just say I looked a little different back then. I never did get that Chapter Ten assignment from you back in Year Nine." He pulled out the fez he would have worn back in his Eleventh life and Rose almost turned into a statue. As recognition entered her eyes, and a couple of tears, one slid down the right side of his face as he noticed years of loneliness and sadness wash away from both of their faces. "Hello Rose Tyler" he said with beam and a sniffle.

"Doctor" she whispered. She made herself go into Torchwood training mode as he prepared his final question.

"Is it too late finish that sentence?" Relief almost overwhelmed him as he finally saw the stoic face grow a smile and another couple tears.

"It's never too late" she choked as she embraced to hear those three words finally, after ten years since "Run". He moved in to cup his hand on her cheek as he beamed one more time and pierced through her eyes with his own.

"Rose Tyler. I love you."

Rose jumped into his arms as they attacked each other with their mouths. For nearly a minute, he could not have felt happier with any universe. The pain from losing her the first time, losing his beloved Ponds, losing River, Sarah Jane, and all of the others he had lost over the years subsided for a single moment as he let himself explore Rose's mouth. This time she was the one who pulled back leaving him confused as he opened his eyes and saw one of the few things he truly feared in any universe. A Tyler slap heading towards his face at high speed. No amount of previous experience would have prepared him for this.

"That's for leaving me!" she screamed as he held onto his face. Damn, that woman could hit. That was the kind of slap that would have made Jackie proud. Even trying to touch it hurt. Her face suddenly went from angry back to almost sad and loving as she whispered "And this is for coming back" as they picked up right where they left off. All of a sudden, the pain in the Doctor's face miraculously subsided as he and Rose went at it with even more ferocity than before. He could feel the TARDIS give her approval as she suddenly left his mind to allow him to focus only on doing what he should have done with Rose Tyler a long time ago. Clothes were tugged at as they tried making their way off the terrace into the master bedroom.

It was a miracle they even made it to the Doctor's bed. Rose's dress and most of the Doctor's clothes, not surprisingly, did not make that particular journey.

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><p><em><strong>AN: My God, you probably have some idea of how hard it is to write a scene like this and actually make it somewhat believable. But thank God, the hardest part of this story (for me anyway) is done and over with. While those two release some feelings, let's skip ahead to the next morning as Benjamin walks in and we finally get some discussion about the Cyberman's message in the next chapter of Rise of the Valeyard. Please review, as like I said earlier, I work well with constructive feedback and am still seeking beta readers. If interested/have the time available, PM me and I will get back to you as soon as I can!**_


	6. Chapter 6

_**A/N: Hello FanFiction, it would seem it's been a few days since my last posting and for that I apologize. I've unfortunately been caught up in a family tragedy and needed some time away to focus on helping the rest of the family. Also I am realizing that I don't necessarily need to do 'Author's Notes at the beginning and end of each chapter. But I do it more for the fun of it, and if they seem distracting, I'll go easier. **_

_**Thanks and enjoy the next chapter of Rise of the Valeyard.**_

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><p>If what had happened last night was a dream, he was really hoping this would not end anytime soon.<p>

Much to his surprise upon waking up, he opened his eyes and realized he had no clothes on. To be fair, the wild mess of blonde hair still asleep in his arms wasn't exactly clothed either. He wasn't sure whether he should feel embarrassed about the fact that he had slept with Rose Tyler or the fact that he hadn't done it while she was still a part of his everyday life. As he soaked in the feeling of being held like this again, he found himself nearly drowning as what seemed like millions of thoughts rushed into his head.

_Where was the Meta-Crisis? Why didn't they live happily ever after?_

_Did he turn evil? Did he die? Did he just turn into an outright ass and dumped Rose as soon as I left?_

_Is Jackie gonna slap me if I dare show my face around their home? Especially after what happened last night?_

_Should I ask Rose to come with me again, or should I just move on with my life and leave here for a third time, knowing I'm throwing both of our happiness away?_

_Did I pull out in time?_

The last one made him chuckle softly as he felt her body move against his, slightly moaning as her knee found an interesting spot to make contact with his body. As she opened her eyes slowly, he pressed a tender kiss against her temple. She wrapped her arm around his neck as they kissed slowly and passionately, without any signs of regret from the night beforehand.

The Doctor sighed. Rose scooted up against him as he took note of arousal building up inside him that probably within a few minutes, they would have to resolve for the sixth time since round one.

"How did it happen?" she asked, breaking the silence while playing with his hair.

"How did what happen?" he responded, still slightly worn out from just waking up.

"Your regeneration?"

"Which one? It's happened three times since you last saw me." Rose had to think about that answer carefully, since she only knew the bow tie-wearing Doctor from one meeting and she hadn't even seen the incarnation before this one, but she wanted the answers as to what happened to man she loved. "All three I suppose."

"Well" he grinned while she did from remembering her Doctor's way of doing that "after I made the worst mistake of my life as Sandshoes, I went around on my own for a bit. Did a few things I'm really not proud of, but never mind that. I died saving Wilfred Mott's life. Donna's grandfather, did you ever meet him?"

She nodded while asking him to continue.

"Right, well I absorbed a bunch of radiation, didn't let it out until I saw all of my companions, and saved the best for last. 'Tell you what, I'll bet you're gonna have a great year'. Sound familiar?"

He continued before she could be properly shocked.

"Then my next life, Bow Tie or Chinny, not sure what to call him, basically ended after I more or less lived to death. That was supposed to be my last incarnation but thanks to a little gift from the Time Lords, they gave me a whole new set of regenerations. After that I became this angry, old, Scottish guy with eyebrows that would have attacked you with a mind of their own."

They both chuckled at that.

"Then five days ago, Ben and I were on San Helios when the Cybermen attacked a major city. Of course, it was all just to get my attention to them. They gave me this cryptic as hell message, then shot me. As soon as I regenerated, I tried going after them but obviously that didn't happen like I had hoped, not that I'm complaining." He noticed her face grow worried as his own lost the attempt at a smile.

"What was the message?" He paused a second before answering.

"I will become the ultimate weapon. I will find the ones I love and I will become unstoppable, leading to my own destruction." Her eyes widened as her hand went to her mouth, as if in disbelief.

"What are you gonna do? And what do they mean 'the ultimate weapon'?"

"I don't know" he whispered. "I don't know and to be honest Rose, I'm frightened. Ok that's a half lie, I think I know what they're alluring to but I need to find out as soon as we're back home."

"Do you mean you and Ben, or..." she trailed off.

"What do you... Oh." He ran his head through his hair as new thoughts occurred to him. Rose, while not being tied down by marital attachments, still had a life here. Presumably, she still worked for Torchwood and her family was still alive. He was going to wait to ask about the Meta-Crisis to when the moment didn't seem so weird between them. He knew he loved her, and she had no problem with saying she still loved him even after him making the terrible mistake he had. As much as he hated domestics in the past, he knew in his hearts she was always the exception to that rule.

"Right... Listen Rose, I know what I want to say but for once I'm gonna act like a completely rational human here, so bear with me. It's not gonna be easy." She smirked at her Doctor's attempt at modesty.

"I hurt you. I know that, and leaving you here was one of the worst decisions I could have ever made. But I love you, and I also want to earn that love back properly. I realize you have a life here. You have responsibilities here, and you have a promising career defending the Earth. After twelve hundred years since Bad Wolf Bay, I have come to realize that I'm better off with the 'damned if I do' option if I ever had a third chance like this. So my answer is yes, I want you back home in the TARDIS more than you could ever know. But I'll let you think about it."

He chuckled as he kissed her hair quickly. "Since I'm stuck here for two weeks, you can think on it for one of them, alright?" She stared into his eyes hoping to find some sort of doubt or insecurity as to his sudden honesty, but she only found love with hints of remorse.

"Twelve hundred years?"

"Yes Rose. I am two thousand one hundred and eighteen years old. How's that for one hell of an age gap?" He snorted. She leaned towards him to whisper in his ear.

"It's too bad you look about my age, 'cause now I can't call you a dirty old man in public." She made a move against his body to pick up from where they were before they had both passed out.

"Oh Rose Tyler" he darkly whispered back "you will always find a way." They grabbed each other and began kissing again, almost violently. They had become so focused on each other they had failed to hear a small ding sound in the background, a ding that sounded an awful lot like the elevator.

Benjamin Westoff had a fantastic night, for the most part. In spite of losing the Doctor and Rose as soon as he and Leah had entered the club, that didn't stop him from having a good time with his new lover. After two shots together, the pair hit the dance floor but no more than two songs in and they stormed the loo, finding the stall on the far end. Needless to say, he gave it to her three times, but he found that she only wanted more as they tried dressing again. So they dashed out of the loo, ran out the doors to the club, and hurried the whole four blocks back to her apartment.

After what seemed like non-stop fun, he had become so worn out that when she simply tried small talk, he wasn't aware that he had let slip that he and the Doctor were time travelers from another universe. She had asked him about it when he woke up, and she knew about the Doctor from working with the Meta-Crisis at one point so he knew lying would have been pointless. She had agreed to not call Rose until he got back to his hotel room, but who said he couldn't take his sweet time? And by sweet time, in his mind's eye, he meant could not get back to the hotel fast enough. Sure, she was fine in bed but a little overly clingy once the sex had wrapped up. Now that he had his libido count diminished, he was ready for some actual rest but he needed to have that chat with the Doctor first. Hoping it would be a quick five-to-ten minute conversation, he was not about to expect what he was walking into.

"Well mate, I'm sorry to say I think our cover might be bl- OH MY GOD!" He shielded his eyes and rounded the corner he walked around as Rose quickly made sure the sheets were over herself and the Doctor. "I'm not gonna ask, just come down stairs in a half hour or so, before I pass out." As they heard the elevator, they both cracked up laughing. As they calmed down, he had to actually think about why Ben would have walked in on them to begin with.

"Oh that's right. He and I are supposed to have a little chat about... Well, the events of the last five days." Rose rolled back on top of him as they stared each other down. "Shower or one more round here then shower?" He raised his eyebrows as she slapped his arm playfully.

"Shower, let's not keep Ben waiting and I want in on this conversation too, yeah?" She picked up a sheet and started dragging it along the floor with her as she turned around halfway to the shower. "Coming?" As she slowly walked in losing the sheet, the Doctor took a deep breath and basically sprinted into the shower behind her.

Ben had found that playing the waiting game was nearly infuriating. He was not one for waiting around on other people, seeming to finally understand why the Doctor sometimes lost his patience when he brought random girls into the TARDIS while he would be out doing work that seemed a little more vital to their visits to places off planet. To pass the time he ate some fruit and tried reading a newspaper but since this wasn't his time or planet, he found it all to be rather pointless as he tossed the newspaper in the trash. He found comfort on the leather chair in the living room as he dozed in and out of sleep for nearly ten minutes. As his eyes finally shut, he heard the ding of the elevator as the Doctor and Rose stepped out in fresh white robes, pajama bottoms, and slippers. If Rose wasn't in the room, he would've called the Doctor out for being impossibly domestic in the nearly six months they had known each other.

"Alright mate, so you got the girl, I had my fun, we still have thirteen days to go before we can leave, so let's finally talk about this." The Doctor clapped his hands together.

"Yes I suppose it's time but frankly my friend you look like you're about to keel over, so go get some rest. Plus there's one more person I want to be involved in this conversation before we talk. Someone who I know is gonna be just thrilled to see me again." Rose wouldn't have glared at him if he hadn't sounded discomforted by the notion of inviting the Meta-Crisis to the conversation. However his tone of voice was way too sarcastic for her personal liking on that last comment.

"Right. Well in that case, good night Doctor, good luck talking to your hand, don't let Rose completely kill you over what you just said." With his parting words, he left his jacket on the chair and meandered back to his room.

After hearing the door close, the Doctor turned to Rose who still had a glare on her face. "Was I being rude again?" She nodded without hesitation. "Right, sorry. Look, I'm honestly looking forward to seeing him again but I'm not looking forward to whatever his response will be. Hell, with my luck, he'll sock me one right on the jaw, tell me to piss off, and give me a speech about how I ruined his life. Sound about right?"

Rose snorted as she shook her head. "Not even close Doctor. Do you honestly want to know what happened after you left?" As much as it pained him to want to say it, he nodded his head in affirmation. "We tried making something work for roughly six months when he moved in with me to get acclimated to this universe. The more effort we put into our relationship, the more we realized we were trying to live a life that could never happen. He accepted he could never be the Doctor that I fell in love with, and I accepted that he needed to be his own person not held down by limitations of the man he used to be. We jokingly said if neither of us were married by the time I hit thirty five, we would just say 'screw it' and get hitched." He had little smirk at that. "But he met this wonderful woman at Oxford, where he accepted a job as a physics professor. They dated for a year before they got married. I was even named maid of honor and godmother to their first child. Two kids later and he's happier than he's ever been. Because you dumped him here with me, and I should be utterly pissed beyond words at you!"

"But you're not..." he smiled.

"You're right, I'm not. And do you want to know why? Because I always knew you'd come back. Even if I had to wait the rest of my life, I knew you'd come back and I'd find it somewhere in my heart to forgive you." The Doctor was not known for always wearing a face of shame, but if a moment ever seemed to call for it, now seemed to be the time. "Because even after you more or less gave me up so I could be happy with the gift of a little piece of you, I still love you, you daft alien." She cupped his left cheek as he let a tear slide down and she released tears of her own. They kissed slowly, savoring every ounce of passion they could, nearly breathless as they broke apart.

"And you want an answer to your question? I suppose I'd better hand in my resignation letter." She finished with **her **smile as they mashed lips once more, going until she smacked him on his chest telling him to stop.

"Alright, we should get dressed and find ourselves a Meta-Crisis. Where does he live now?"

"He would actually be at the office today until about one-thirty. We can take my car, I suppose." The Doctor was about to make a comment, but Rose stopped him short. "You're going in there by yourself. You're a big alien now, and I have no business in family reconciliations." He sighed.

"Alright fine, oh," he snapped his finger loudly, "do you want to see her?"

"The TARDIS?" she piped up excitedly.

"Yeah, and just a warning, she will look entirely different from the last time you saw her. Come on!"

Upon arrival back in the master bedroom, Rose quickly dashed towards her purse and pulled the TARDIS key out as he opened the door to the closet where the old police box sat. Rose nearly cried again as she placed her key inside of the lock and turned it to the right. They opened the door, pushing of course in spite of the 'Pull to open' instruction on the door.

The word excited could barely describe the happiness that Rose Tyler was feeling as he took her hand and led her into the console room. She took note of everything in the room from the fact that now there were two levels to the console room to the brand new Time Rotor and console. Of course, she knew he must've thought all of this was old hat to him, but as he looked at her eyes and felt the sense of wonder fill him up he leaned in to kiss her, which she had clearly no objection to.

"New new TARDIS" he whispered.

"New new new new Doctor."

He beamed as he took her hand to lead her back to her old room. He opened the door and her eyes almost went sad as they both walked in. Her room had managed to remain completely untouched in all the time she had been gone. This took both of them down a weird trip on memory lane as she realized that the last time she had actually even stayed in the TARDIS was the night before she got stuck in Pete's World. He grabbed her from behind as he kissed her hair and just held her.

"Never even touched since you left", he murmured into her ear, "but never empty again now."

She beamed at him and kissed his cheek with a "Thank you".

He leaned in for another snog. Clearly showing he had intentions other getting dressed, she quickly reminded him why they were bothering with getting dressed in the first place. After receiving a wave of her hand to go get his clothes, he slowly and reluctantly left the room to go find his clothes.

She came back out after ten minutes finding a knee-long skirt, with a black shirt and her old jean jacket which surprisingly still fit her. With that, she grabbed her keys and led him to her car still down in the penthouse lot. After finding her car, they managed to get past security with a quick flash of psychic paper, which Rose quite appreciated seeing. To pass the time with the half hour drive to Cambridge, she asked what he had been up to. They discussed what kind of adventures they had since Bad Wolf Bay, from his story with the Pandorica and Stonehenge, to him actually saving Gallifrey instead of outright killing it.

"Oh my god, did you really save it?" She almost couldn't believe that he had in fact not burned Gallifrey, knowing the Meta-Crisis needed to hear this as well. He nodded. "You'll have to tell John, and give him the full details otherwise he might not believe you, yeah?" He looked confused.

"John?"

"Right" she chuckled, "that's the name the Meta-Crisis gave himself. Doctor Jonathan Theta Noble."

"Oh." He hadn't even thought the Meta-Crisis would try to give himself Donna's name mixed with his old nickname from the Academy. The notion brought a smile to his face as they finally came upon campus.

As they pulled up to the building John worked at, she got out of the car with the Doctor and started walking towards a vehicle parked further down the lot, where a pregnant woman sat with two kids. She called to the Doctor "Room 211 is his Saturday classroom." He walked in through the doors and hurried up a flight of stairs. He jogged down the hall until he came up to his destination, where he listened in to what he was teaching. The only words he could understand were something to the effect of "And that is where we will pick up next week." He opened the door as students of all ages seemed to come pouring out, some saying thank you as they left and some just bolting. He walked into the room as the board read "Possible alternate realities?".

"It's a shame I missed the lesson." The Meta-Crisis pulled off his glasses as he looked at the Doctor.

"Sorry, I'm almost finished with the series. I don't recognize you, are you new staff around here?" The Doctor smirked while his clone took a drink out of a water bottle he had on his desk.

"Not quite." He eyed John up and down and noticed even after ten years, he only aged a little bit and hadn't seemed to have gained any weight. "My God, was I really that skinny when I was you?" John spat his drink of water out and dropped the bottle, coughing a couple times but recovering by himself. He walked around his desk as he came up to the Doctor.

"Doctor?"

The Doctor wanted to cower in fear almost, but he stood strong and held a smile. "Hello Handy."

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><p><em><strong>AN: Okay, okay... Yes, I gave the Meta-Crisis the name Jonathan Noble, in spite of the fact that pretty much everyone else does (it's either that or John Smith) and I may have just felt a little lazy. Kinda also with Rose's explanation of what happened as to why things didn't quite work out between her and Jonathan, but I didn't want to straight up kill him off or make him the Valeyard (though in canon it would make a hell of a lot more sense than you might think... I might post a blog about it sometime, I'm not sure yet) or some kind of bullshit like that. I felt like giving the Meta-Crisis his own life and you can read more about his backstory in the next chapter of Rise of the Valeyard.**_

_**P.S. I know this sounds slightly clingy, but reviews honestly do help! Plus again, if I want to make this into a legit fan film someday, I'm gonna need pointers as to what's working in the story and what's not.**_


	7. Chapter 7

_**A/N: Hello FanFiction! Ok, about time I finally updated with a new chapter. It feels like it's been way too long, but finally here I am. So here's a scene I knew I needed to make happen. So I'm officiating this, there are only two more chapters before we leave Pete's World! And I'm working on both of them right now! **_

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><p>As far as he knew, this was gonna be one awkward conversation.<p>

It wasn't that he didn't want to see his clone, in truth, the very notion of seeing him with Rose just once was more or less gonna be the point of him and Benjamin actually sticking around in Pete's World. But that was the problem, at least in his mind, that Rose and the Meta-Crisis didn't live happily ever after. So in his mind it made no sense to him why she couldn't have remained being with him as they both lived out their lives. Their fragile, short, human lives together as the Doctor and Rose Tyler. The way it was meant to be, but not with the actual Doctor. He thought he was saving himself the heartbreak of watching her wither and fade away with age. Now, as the Meta-Crisis continued to gaze over what would have been his future self, a random memory suddenly popped up in his mind. It was words spoken by the Master in a time somewhere around his Sixth life, something to do with an 'amalgamation' and 'between your twelfth and final incarnation. It would probably take the Doctor a solid minute to fully remember exactly what was going on, but he could think about it later as the Meta-Crisis decided to try and start the talk he knew they needed to have.

"So..." he paused, "tell me, what brought you back here this time?"

"It wasn't as if I intended to come back. I had literally just finished regenerating from our fourteenth body, mid-pursuit of the Cybermen who killed me, but I had to have an emergency pullout of the Vortex. And it managed to land me here." John raised his eyebrow at that, but smiled as the Doctor managed his own half-smile. "Rose tells me you're married."

"I am. With two lovely children and a third on the way. So I guess you bumped into her?" he pulled the blinds of his classroom open to see Rose's car parked three spaces down from his wife's parking spot. "That must have been one hell of a talk. Did she give you the Tyler Slap?"

The Doctor snorted as John chuckled and winced, "Yeah. And it was a slap that I had coming. To be fair, she was not complaining about my return this morning though." He winked with a beam.

John's eyes widened nearly to the point of nearly falling out of his face "Oh my God, you didn't." The Time Lord could barely keep from laughing or widening the smile on his face any further as John rolled his eyes. "Oh my God, you did. Well, it's about bloody time then." He gazed at the younger looking Doctor's eyes, betraying his true age. "How much older than me are you really?"

"Since Bad Wolf Bay? About twelve hundred years older and not really any wiser for it." He paused to look at his clone's slightly darker growing eyes. "I guess this is the part where I apologize for doing what I did, and you more or less cursing me out for making the mistake of the one time I come back to something I ran away from?"

John returned the look with a face of stone, but his eyes told a different story. How many times he had seen Rose cry over the fact that the Doctor had not only abandoned her but himself as well as she cried for the both of them. How often he himself had wanted to stay back at the home universe with Donna, Jack, Sarah Jane, and all of the Doctor's old friends. How long it was after he and Rose broke up, realizing that he could never actually share the same feelings for her that the Doctor originally had. The long road he went through discovering that what the Doctor, the man he considered his brother, had actually given him rather than a banishment and a consolation prize. He was given a chance to live the one life that the Doctor would never be able to with his near immortality and space and time travel. A life with a family that he could actually give his time and full heart to, since he had only heart in this life.

The Doctor felt trapped within his thoughts as John took his sweet time with his answer. He was expecting John to just lash out, much like how he would have in that life. However, what the Doctor had failed to notice was the softness in his clone's eyes. Softness that revealed anger and resentment that had been let go some time ago. John took three steps slowly towards the Time Lord then wrapped his brother in a hug. The Doctor resembled something of a statue as he tried to understand why John seemed so forgiving as opposed to the anger that he had to admit he would have felt if the situation was reversed. Time caught up to him as he returned the embrace and silently let a tear slip off of his face.

"I forgave you a long time ago. I know that I can never replace Brax, but I'll be damned before I disown who I was and who I am now. I'll be honest in saying I should probably thank you more than anything for dumping me here. If I hadn't had Rose and my family to help shape me, I probably would have succumbed to the darker sides of our nature."

A mental lightbulb went off in the Doctor's head. Now he was remembering those words from earlier as a scene began to play in his head. A man dressed in black robes, a courtroom back on Gallifrey, the Matrix, the Master revealing the Valeyard's true identity. Now it made sense why the Doctor was so quick to leave the Meta-Crisis behind so quickly. It wasn't so he could give Rose the happily ever after she deserved, he would have kept her with him if that was the case. He tried to re-write his own his history by getting rid of the Valeyard altogether. It made too much sense to the old Time Lord. But the more he thought about it, the less it started to make sense about the Valeyard's origin. He still had yet to find that out, but then the Cyberman's message came back to him with full force.

_You will become the ultimate weapon. _

If that didn't sum up the potential of the Valeyard, nothing else in the universe did. The Doctor was the Valeyard, if his sense of morality was obscured beyond fixing. The closest he came to stooping to that dangerous point was back on Mars with the Time Lord Victorious. Since he had been tempted, sure, but never even close as to the kind of power abuse that the Valeyard was capable of. Then one more thought crept up behind the Cyberman's message.

_One more..._

The final nail in the coffin of realization. This body, this incarnation of the Doctor, was going to be the last one before he would become the ultimate weapon. This Doctor was the last stand that the universe had before his own destruction would leave dire consequences on reality as he knew it.

Without realizing it, the Doctor backed away from John, nearly stumbling into a desk as he forced himself to sit down. John grew a face of concern as he sat in a desk next to the Time Lord and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Theta, if there's something going on, you should probably say something."

The Doctor was nearly panting from his epiphany as he stared at the floor. "You were never meant to become him." John looked puzzled.

"Never meant to become who?" His brother slowly brought his gaze upward to look him in the eye.

"The man who put us on trial." Jonathan Theta Noble wasn't exactly a man to show a surprised face. Having technically lived for a grand total of nine hundred and nine years, he thought of himself as the man who had seen as much as he could and found that little could surprise him these days anymore. Then John himself felt a connection as the Doctor projected simply a name to him. A name that to anyone would have sounded like just a name, and a potentially rubbish one at that. But to the Time Lord and the half-human, that name meant more than that. John gasped and slapped his brother across both cheeks as he roared "You thought I was supposed to become the Valeyard?" The Doctor shut his eyes and turned them towards the floor again.

"By all technicalities, you should have."

"And that wouldn't have been a good thing to think of at the time why?"

"Well one, spoilers. Two, in case you forgot what I was like when I was you, it was a little hard to be thinking about that part of our past when I had just seen you and Donna commit mass genocide. Three, I thought that this would have been the one time I could have re-written my own history and there would have been no consequences whatsoever. I guess not everything can end up like Gallifrey."

"What are you talking about? Gallifrey burnt. I remember it happening, we made it happen." For the first time since the discussion got heated, the Doctor managed a smile.

"But did it really?" The Doctor could tell John was nearly livid. "Now let me finish, you're not supposed to remember this, from any of our past lives because all of our original lives and my last two incarnations were there as well. Instead of burning it, I'll tell you what we did. We used the Moment to freeze Gallifrey in a single moment of time. It's currently hidden away in a pocket universe, just waiting for me to figure out how to get it back, and I will. Come hell or high water, Gallifrey still stands and it will always stand." John beamed as his face mixed with shock and joy.

"We saved them."

"That we did. I just wish I could have that miracle happy ending for this current situation but I'll face it when it comes and I just hope that I can find a way around it." John walked over to his desk and pulled a folder with a sticky note on it.

"You're not going to try and do it alone, are you?" The Doctor shook his head.

"No, I've got a companion. Ben, he's quite brilliant, albeit a tad bit like Captain Jack but very useful in a quick escape. And I've asked Rose to come back with me."

"What did she say?" John asked as he placed the folder on his desk and tossed the sticky note away. The Doctor smiled and strolled up to John's desk.

"She said yes. What's with the folder?" His clone gestured for him to pick it up which he carefully did as to not let any papers fall out, reading the writing on the folder itself. It was High Gallifreyan that translated as 'Arkytior test results'. That was the literal translation anyway, as the Doctor knew who Arkytior really was. And as much as he felt like he had gotten over the Time War, he still wondered what exactly had happened to Susan since he saw her last in his fifth body. But random thoughts about his granddaughter had to be put aside as he eyes focused on every single detail on the papers before him.

"You know, you really are an idiot if you don't mind my saying." The Doctor glared at John, who smugly returned his stare before continuing. "I mean in that whole year following Bad Wolf, did you honestly not once think about testing Rose just to make sure there were no side effects of any kind? In all the time you had with her, were you truly able to convince yourself that magically she was able to withstand the use of the Time Vortex as long as she did while you regenerated after taking it in for mere seconds? Well, in fairness to me, the thought hadn't occurred to me until after she and I decided to just be friends. But the point still stands, you screwed up Doctor. And before you even think about just dashing out there to ask her about this, let me finish where I'm going with this."

John expected the Time Lord to have some kind of overreaction. In fairness, the Doctor wanted to just dash out, find Ben, and figure a way out by forcing his way through in the TARDIS. However, due to the damage that would cause not only to the multiverse as he knew it, it would completely destroy Rose and John's trust for this new body. Granted, he didn't like that John was short of berating him for his mistakes when he was finally even acknowledging said mistakes. Yet he found that he needed to listen to his clone's honesty. He plopped himself back down in the chair he had previously occupied as John continued his tangent.

"So clearly you know this isn't exactly forever. Well, rather as close as either of you could get. What we found was her exact DNA coding from the day she became Bad Wolf had only changed in such a slight rate that it's like the amount her body physically changes is one tenth the rate of a normal human. Think like suspended animation but still with some movement. She will age eventually, but obviously not quickly in the near future. She could still die from something like a bullet to the head, so the danger factor will always be there. This does not mean, however, that you every right to leave her on the sidelines while you just gallivant your martyr-like ass into trouble. She has been through emotional hell from waiting for you the first time, then our pathetic attempt at making something work, to the loneliness that I can tell both of you have put yourselves through over the last six years. Well longer for you I suppose. Anyway, I'm telling this to you now because I want one thing and only one thing for the both of you. Be happy, damn it! You clearly need some form of spark back in your life and she needs the man she fell in love with. Can you promise me in spite of your little revelation concerning the Valeyard, you will actually let her try to help you overcome becoming that horrid man? Can you promise me that you will actually let yourself be happy for once in your life?"

The Doctor found the last question especially hard to come up with an answer for. He could have tried to pretend that he would mean it if he said yes, but he had to think about what this could mean for his future. Every time he had tried to find some form of happiness in his life, something always got in the way. For a man who constantly dismissed the idea of domestics, the Doctor mentally chuckled at his own hypocrisy. He finally faced his brother, he found it weird that he actually acknowledged the Meta-Crisis as his brother, and smiled genuinely.

"I'm not sure if I can promise all of that, but I will say this. It's about time I made good on her promise to me." John beamed and clapped him on the back as he grabbed his work bag to lead him out the door. "And who knows, maybe with her around I can finally figure out what the hell is going on with this Valeyard nonsense." As they approached the main door, John stopped him.

"What are you gonna tell her when you go back home?"

The Doctor paused, suddenly caught off guard in his thoughts. "I'm gonna tell her the truth, but who knows if I'm lucky just like I was when I was you, another back door solution might present itself." With a nod, John opened the door and locked it shut as the Doctor snuck out.

The two started walking back as Rose began lightly running towards them. The Doctor held still as John continued towards the blonde, whispering "He's all yours" as he continued to his wife's car. She quickly followed him with her eyes before focusing back on the Time Lord, who pulled the folder from behind his back and smiled. He tossed it as she dashed the last ten yards to his open arms, and he twirled her around as they pressed their lips together. They held on to each other as the Doctor could see the rather large smile form on the Meta-Crisis's face. As they held each other, she began chuckling. Naturally, he found himself chuckling along with her, even if he had no idea what would make her laugh in the first place.

"What's so funny?"

"Just a thought" she replied. "What are we gonna tell my mum? John's family is coming over tomorrow and you're coming too, like it or not."

As she finished her initial question, the Doctor could feel the color drain from his face. The last thing he wanted to be thinking about as far as all of this new information was concerned, was the idea of seeing Jackie Tyler again. He thought Rose's slap from the night before stung like hell, he would just wait until Jackie got her hands on him. What snapped him out of his thoughts was hearing Rose's laughter, no doubt in response to him showing his absolute fear of her mother.

"Well, if you're gonna come back with me, we'll have to learn to overcome all obstacles right?" After a quick nod, he asked "Together?"

She quickly kissed him and looked into his aged eyes. "Together."

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><p><em><strong>AN: So there, that's our explanation for Rose and the Doctor to have a chance at forever. Tune in next chapter for a sneak peek of events to come! Maybe even a little preview of why this story is titled as it is... See you all in the next chapter of Rise of the Valeyard.**_


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